Moths of Delhi, India

Study Extent

Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR- IARI), Pusa (28.04° N, 77.12° E), Rashtrapathi Bhawan (28.61° N, 77.19° E) and Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary (28.4762º N, 77.23º E).

Sampling

Field surveys were conducted from 2012 to 2020 by setting up light traps.This accounted for a total of 73 survey nights. The light traps were set after sunset during the evening hours generally for 5 hours from 6 to 11 PM using a Mercury vapor bulb of 160W. Most of the times electrical mains were available for surveys but a portable diesel-based generator was used to set the light traps at the locations without the source of electricity. All the moths were photographed in field using a Cannon 70D with a 100mm macro lens.

Method steps

1. Biodiversity of moths of the region was studied by an exhaustive exploration of the museum holdings of the National Pusa Collection, Department of Entomology at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi (NPC-IARI) which is one of the largest insect repositories in Asia for agricultural pests since 1900s. The specimens of moths belonging to Delhi were sorted separately for the present study. A database has been created from individual specimens based on label data including the name of the collector, date of collection, method of collection, associated host plants and sex.
2. Identification and reconfirmation of all the specimens was done and were updated to their current taxonomic positions. All the representative species were photographed with a Cannon 70D with a 100mm macro lens. The micromoths were photographed with a digitalized camera Leica DFC 425C on the Leica 19205FA Stereozoom Automountage microscope.
3. Museum collection data and surveys, additionally, data from citizen science internet portals like the Moths of India (http://www.mothsofindia.org/; Sondhi et al. 2021), iNaturalist (https:// www.inaturalist.org) and India Biodiversity (http:// indiabiodiversity. org/) were also used to prepare the checklist.

There have been several recent checklists, books, and publications about Indian moths, however much of this work has focused on biodiversity hotspots such North East India, Western Ghats, and Western Himalayas. There is a lack of published literature on urban centres in India, despite the increased need to monitor insects at sites with high levels of human disturbance.  In this study, we examine the moths of Delhi, the national capital region of India, one of the fastest growing mega metropolitan cities. We present a comprehensive checklist of 331 moths species using 8 years of light trapping data (2012-2020) and examining about 2000 specimens from historical collections at the National Pusa Collection of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi (NPC-IARI) spanning over 100 years (1907-2020). The checklist comprises moths from 32 families spanning 14 superfamilies with Noctuidea (49.5%) and Pyraloidea (18.4%) being the two most dominant superfamilies. We provide links to images of live individuals and pinned specimens for all of moths, and provide detailed distribution records and provide an updated taxonomic treatment.