Documenting the fauna of a small temporary pond from Pune, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Most of the limnological studies in India have focussed on a few taxa of large, permanent water bodies, and pond ecosystems, and related temporary water bodies are neglected. We present here a faunal inventory, with representative photographs, for a single, small temporary pond, reporting over 125 species of strictly aquatic fauna and 25 species of associated fauna, even though we did not identify some groups such as Protozoa, Diptera and nymphs of Odonata, etc. The identified species belong to seven taxa of vertebrates and invertebrates together. Arthropoda and Rotifera were the most species rich groups, observed with 83 and 45 representatives, respectively. Coleoptera were the most numerous in terms of species number. Such a small water body holds some endemics as well as otherwise very rare animals and so deserves better attention. We also highlight the potential and importance of such habitats for research and conservation. 7196 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) OPEN ACCESS Communication Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2015 | 7(6): 7196–7210 Modern College, Shivajinagar, Pune; Abasaheb Garware College, Pune for facilities and encouragement. We also thank Anand Padhye (Garware College) for all the help and encouragement. We also acknowledge Reginald Victor, Sultan Qaboos Universiy, Oman (Ostracoda); K. Subramanian, Scientist D, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata (Odonata); Y. Ranga Reddy, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur and Maria Holynska, Museum and Institute of Zoology, Poland (Copepoda); A. Komarek, Austria and Andrew Short, U.S.A. (Hydrophilidae); and Mandar Datar, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune (aquatic macrophytes) for their help. We thank Christopher Thorpe-Dixon, Plymouth University, UK and Nikhil Modak, Abasaheb Garware College, Pune, for literature; Sanjay Molur, Wildlife Information Liaison Development Society, Coimbatore and Neelesh Dahanukar, IISER, Pune for their support. We especially thank Reginald Victor for his critical comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.