Santosh Kumar

Cholistan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences · Department of Zoology

Defining the enteric flora of clinically healthy bacterial captive houbara bustards as well as their antibiotic resistance is a critical step to understand the epidemiology of bacterial diseases. An investigation was carried out to identify the intestinal Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella sp. associated with houbara bustards in captivity and to...

The sub-genus Omorgus (Afromorgus) includes 54 described species, with 8 species identified in Pakistan. These species are Omorgus (Afromorgus) frater Pittino, 2005, O. (Afromorgus) granulatus (Herbst, 1783), O. (Afromorgus) haagi (Harold, 1872), O. (Afromorgus) italicus (Reiche, 1853), O. (Afromorgus) maindroni Pittino, 2005, O. (Afromorgus) proce...

Pokilocerus pictus (Fab.) is reported as the principal pest of Calotropis procera but it also damages wheat, alfalfa, papaya, citrus, castor, brinjal and cow pea on large scale. During the present study its mating strategy has been discussed in order to know any weak phase so that diagnostic of proper management could be made. Poekilocerus pictus o...

Coleoptera is the largest organismic group on the Earth comprising 400,000 species that inhabit a variety of habitats. Their hardened upper wings which are known as Elytra distinguish them from all other insect groups. Being one of the diverse habitats they are also abundant in the desert ecosystem. In these harsh conditions they had attained such...

Schistocerca gregaria (Forskl, 1775), one of the most notorious insects in the world, significantly harms the economy and agriculture each year. It was reputedly the biggest infestation to hit Pakistan since the 1990s, destroying wheat, rice, sugarcane, cotton, and vegetable crops, and it was also the cause of the worst disaster of 2019–2020. We ha...

DNA barcode data of Acrididae is limited in global data bases from Sindh, Pakistan. Hence, the present study was aimed to collect some selected Acridid species from the Sindh and generate DNA barcode data to improve the global database sequencing. Specimens were collected from cultivated, sandy, rocky, vegetation, grassy, desert, semi desert, roads...

This study has been conducted to explore the four species of Acrididae on the basis of their morphological and molecular studies in Sindh. Surveys were conducted in 10 different districts of upper Sindh province to determine how common acrididae present in different hot plant ecosystems i.e., Dadu, Ghotki, Jacobabad, Kashmore, Khairpur Miras, Larka...

In this study 09 localities of Thar Desert of Sindh have been surveyed and 1383 specimens of band-winged grasshoppers were collected. These samples were sorted out into 07 genera and 11 species. Morphological and morphometry account of each species with illustration ecology and global distribution was given. Taxonomic keys have been generated at ge...

The study was planned to estimate diversity, distribution and seasonal variations of grasshoppers in croplands of Cholistan Desert, Punjab, Pakistan. The seasonal variations were assessed by sampling 06 randomly selected sites fortnightly during 2020-2021. And following species were collected i-e Hilethera balucha, Acrotylus patruelis Sphingonotus...

Alternative approaches and/or modified approaches to tackle resistance in gut microbes are need of the hour. The current study was planned to find the resistance modulation and toxicity potential of sodium alginate stabilized MgO nanoparticles and antibiotics against Escherichia coli (E. coli) isolated from the gut of Houbara bustard bird ( n = 105...

Although Pakistan has rich biodiversity, many groups are poorly known, particularly insects. To address this gap, we employed DNA barcoding to survey its insect diversity. Specimens obtained through diverse collecting methods at 1,858 sites across Pakistan from 2010-2019 were examined for sequence variation in the 658 bp barcode region of the cytoc...

Preliminary observations were carried out on the Cholistan fauna of grasshoppers. This desert (27°42ʹN and 29°45ʹN and 69°52ʹE and 75°24ʹE )is about 480 km long while its width changes from 32 – 192 km. during the present study extensive survey were carried out ( preferable at morning & Evening times) and about 932 specimens were captured from foll...

An extensive survey was carried out in Cholistan Desert and about 932 specimens were captured from following 5 localities i-e Basti Haq Nawaz, Basti Talab, Basti Yar Muhammad, Mari Shakh Sujra, CUVAS Area and following 6 species viz: Acrida exeltata (Walker), Heteracris littoralis (Rambur), Acrotylus humbertians (Saussure), Oxya hyla hyla (Audine...

The present study was carried out from January 2018 to December 2020 to investigate the biodiversity, richness and evenness of Orthoptera from Punjab, Pakistan. The Punjab province has agriculture, sandy and rocky areas. The total 22 species of Orthoptera were recorded, 10 species belonged to suborder Ensifera and 12 species belonged to suborder Ca...

The purpose of present study was to investigate the biodiversity of Caelifera from Cholistan desert of Punjab, Pakistan. The present research work was carried out from June 2019 to December 2019. During the present study, 1683 samples were collected from Cholistan desert track (Derawar Fort, Head Fareed, Islam garh Fort and Manthar Bangla) Punjab,...

Environment is the predominant factor for deciding the appropriation and abundance of Orthoptera species globally. During present study, the impact of major environmental factors on abrupt occurrence of Orthoptera species was examined. Orthopterans landed on vast agricultural fields of cotton, wheat, maize, sugarcane and other standing crops in fer...

Seventeen species of the family Gryllidae were reviewed and a Modicogryllus sindhensis is described herein as new. Four species, namely Acheta hispanicus Rambur, 1838, Gryllus septentrionalis F. Walker, 1869, Callogryllus saeedi Saeed, 2000, and Miogryllus itaquiensis Orsini & Zefa, 2017 are recorded as new country and state records. Differences be...

Environment is the fundamental factor for deciding the conveyance and plenitude of locust species globally. The various body's parameters of males and females like distance between two eyes, length of head, pronotum, tegmina, wings, femur, tibia, total body length, total body length with tegmina and impact of climate on abrupt swarming of Schistoce...

Preliminary investigation was carried out in order to reared Acrida exaltata (Walker) under laboratory conditions. Target insects were reared on different diet and food consumption and utilization, growth (growth rate, average daily growth, specific growth rate and wet weight gain), survival and life span were noted. It was found significantly dif...

The recent upsurge of the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria (Forskål, 1775) has had an impact on East Africa and the Middle East as far as India. It has affected and slowed down many aspects of the Pakistani economy. Swarms of locusts have infested many areas and caused immense damage to all types of crops. Both farmers and economists are concern...

The family Gryllidae is reviewed, resulting in the recognition of seventeen species, of which one is Modicogryllus ? described herein as new. Four species namely Acheta hispanicus Rambur, 1838, Gryllus septentrionalis F. Walker, 1869 and Callogryllus saeedi (Saeed 2000) and Miogryllus itaquiensis Orsini and Zefa, 2017 recorded as new country and st...

Cholistan has a diverse fauna and flora, but until now its orthopteran fauna is relatively unstudied. The survey was conducted during November 2018 to August 2019. We found 25 species of grasshoppers, crickets and tree crickets. Caelifera were more diverse than Ensifera with 16 and 9 species, respectively. This work is provided an extended list of...

Environment is the predominant factor for deciding the appropriation and abundanceof Orthoptera species globally. During present study, the impact of major environmental factors on abrupt occurrence of Orthoptera species was examined. Orthopterans landed on vast agricultural fields of cotton, wheat, maize, sugarcane and other standing crops in fert...

Grasshoppers belong to Acridinae are polyphagous insects and cause severe Damage to agricultural crops of these Acrida exaltata, were reported as severe pest of cash crops in Sindh. During present study it was noted that immature stages of these species were more injurious to the crops than adults. It was therefore felt necessary, and attempt has b...

The desert locust has been a notorious pest since ancient times. A population upsurge hit Pakistan in 2019 and caused tremendous damage to agriculture and livelihoods. To take advantage of this ongoing upsurge, we conducted a field study to verify whether locust collection could be an interesting control method to protect crops in the event of an i...

The egg-pods of 04 species viz: Oxya hyla hyla Serville, 1831, O. velox (Fabricius, 1787), O. fuscovittata (Marschall, 1836) of genus Oxya and Oxyina bidentata (Willemse, 1925) of Oxyina were examined under laboratory conditions. Significant differences were found in the sizes and shapes of the pods. Beside this, number of eggs in each egg pod, dis...

Genus Sphingonotus Fieber; was considered as agricultural pest. During present study 12 species and subspecies of this tribe were collected from different localities of Pakistan i-e S. savignyi Saussure, S. hussaini Baloch and Wagan, S. longipennis Saussure, S. nebulosis tokhai n. sp, S. balteatus himalayanus Uvarov, S. balteatus balucha Uvarov, S....

During the present investigation weekly survey has been carried out in district Daud and the study area was divided into 05 different sectors where 04 varieties of sugarcane i-e: SPF-234, CPF-237, Thatta-10 and BL4 are grown in 08 sectors. During the field survey maximum infestation of 05 borers viz: stem borer (Chilo tumidicostalis), shoot borer (...

The grasshoppers and locust are one of the very familiar groups of insects to mankind. They cause significant damage to crops and cultivators protect their crops by using different chemical pesticides which put harmful effects on the human as well as on environment. During current era biological control is recommended to reduce the numbers of insec...

The grasshoppers and locusts are considered as pests to many agricultural crops, and the increased concerns over the deleterious environmental and health control their outbreaks. Like other microbial agents Entomopathogenic fungi are also responsible for suppression of grasshopper and locust population. During the present study an attempt has been...

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Aspergillus species on acridid populations which are major agricultural pests of rice, sugarcane, wheat, maize and fodder crops in Pakistan. Three and replicates i.e. Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus and A. niger, excluding the control, were held under laboratory conditions. It was observed that co...

During present study, some observation was taken on the analysis of egg pods and its morphological characteristic and hatching. It was noted that egg pods of Poekilocerus pictus were fragile, elongated and much bent and curved near the base surface, eggs in pod were arranged irregularly and overlap with each other. A significant variation in the mo...

Passeriformes bird’s are generally regarded as insectivorous bird’s. These avian predators play paramount role to control the insect pest population form different cropland and forest ecosystem. Bird population occurring in the croplands of Tandojam during the year 2015 was pertaining to order Passeriformes including Common Babbler, Common Myna, Ho...

Common Calotropis procera is studied with its medicinal properties and its association with Poekilocerus pictus, they are studied from agricultural crops, mixed vegetation of herbs, grasses along with field boundaries surrounding by different plantation and from water channels. The fear that this pest has chances to shift from Calotropis procera to...

In this work, we have focused on the transmission dynamics of visceral strains of leishmania, by using mathematical model that includes human, reservoir and vector population. Threshold conditions for persistence of infection are obtained using Routh-Hurwitz criteria and Next generation method. Both the thresholds conditions agree on the same param...

During the present study reproductive activity that include: duration of maturation, into final moult, maturation of adult, copulation timing of individuals, No. of mating and fecundity rate of healthy and unhealthy samples of Hieroglyphus oryzivorus effective by infection of Aspergillus flavus was studied. It was noted that 6th instar took (8.01±1...

Extensive surveys for collection of Acridid grasshopper were carried out from different province of Pakistan during the year 2012-2013. Present study revealed a significantly high incidence of 73% when sporulation tests were carried out on grasshopper cadavers. At the present 03 species of fingi i-e Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigutus and A. niger wer...

The entomopathogenic fungi such as Aspergillus niger Van Tieghem (1867), A.flavus Jahan Heinrich Friedrich Link (1809) and A.fumigutus Fresenius (1863) are globally distributed hyphomycete under intensive study as a bio-control agent for a variety of pest insect. Displaying a broad host range and being able to target a diverse number of grasshopper...

Pokilocerus pictus (Fab.) is reported as principal pest of Calotropis procera but it also damage wheat, alfalfa, papaya, citrus, castor, brinjal and cow pea on large scale. During the present study it mating strategy has been discuss in order to know any weak phase so that diagnostic of proper management could be made. At the present maturation per...

The present survey for the Phaneropterinae conducted during the year 2011-2012 from various provinces of Pakistan and by previous workers has yielded a total of 14 species. Half of the species were collected during survey. The collected material was sorted out into 8 genera belonging to 5 tribes viz., Phaneropterini, Trigonocoryphini, Ducetini, Hol...

The grasshopper insects belonging to the genus Euconocephalus are of considerable economic importance in Pakistan. They cause constant threat to the valuable crops economic loss to mankind in Pakistan. They are well-known as the “Cone-Headed Grasshoppers”. During the present survey a total of 851 specimens of Conocephalinae pertaining to single gen...

During the present study three rice pest species i-e Oxya velox (Fabricius, 1787), Oxya hyla hyla (Serville, 1831) and Hieroglyphus nigrorepletus (Bolivar, 1912) were treated with three Aspergillus species under laboratory condition. It was observed that infestation of Aspergillus cause significant reduction in the feeding and over all faeces produ...

During the present study a total of 08 species of grasshopper came in collection amongst these survivalships of three grasshopper i-e Oxya velox (Fabricius, 1787), Poekilocerus pictus (Fabricius, 1775) and Hieroglyphus nigrorepletus Bolivar, 1912 were note following the infection of three Aspergillus species i-e Aspergillus flavus, A.fumigutus and...

At the present distribution and morphological description of ♀ Glyphonotus senesis was carried out from Pakistan with detailed characteristics of head, pronotum, leg- spines, wings and female ovipositor. Important and necessary illustration/ photographs are provided.

Sugarcane stem borer, Chilo infuscatellus Snellen is an important and destructive insect pest attacking sugarcane crop in Sindh. Wasp, Cotesia flavipes Cameron is effective larval parasitoid of Chilo species. In the present investigation, population dynamics of C. infuscatellus and C. flavipes were analyzed in Hyderabad region. The results indicate...

Field investigation was carried out to examine the effect of excessive irrigation on the Root rot disease and cotton yield at the Central Cotton Research Institute, Sakrand. In addition to this the plant showing mortality was recorded on the basis of applied treatments. It was noted that the Root rot disease was unaffected by the excessive irrigati...

A detail survey for the collection of Conocephalus species has been carried out during the year 2011-2013 in various provinces of Pakistan. A single genus with single species i.e, Conocephalus maculates (Le Guillo) was recorded in large numbers. Besides this, important taxonomic character along with drawing lines, measurement of various body parts...

A survey of Orthoptera occurring in the district Jamshoro was carried out during the months of May to November 2012. The study sites included agricultural lands, semi mountainous areas with various vegetation types i.e. crops, grasses, herbs and shrubs. A total of 183 specimens of grasshopper were collected and sorted out into 5 species. Of these 2...