A Taxonomic Monograph Of Some Little Known Cucujoid And Tenebrionoid Beetle Families Of North-East India (Coleoptera: Polyphaga)

About this book

The beetle superfamilies Cucujoidea and Tenebrionoidea exceed any other superfamily in number and the diversity of structure and habitat among them are correspondingly great. Many of these beetle species have significant bearings on human economy. However, the species richness and functional attributes of the Cucujoid and Tenebrionoid beetles have been quite inadequately known from India. Owing to its unique bioclimatic situation and diverse flora, the northeast Indian territory has been a major zone of concentration of the rich beetle fauna of India, and especially of the Cucujoid and Tenebrionoid beetle fauna.

The author has been working extensively on different families of Cucujoidea and Tenebrionidea at the Zoological Survey of India since the 1970s and has worked out many curious forms from India and abroad. He has a reputation of expertise in these beetle families. He focused on these families from Northeast India since mid-1905 and explored a sizeable fauna with several new genera and species. In the present monograph he has presented a thorough taxonomic treatment of fauna of five families of the Cucujoidea and two families of the Tenebrionoidea of northeast India.