Plant and Insect Species Diversity: a Case Study of Western Satpuda (maharashtra)

The Satpuda ranges supports variety of species in few vegetation types. The species richness was relatively high in inaccessible forest. It is because of inaccessibility due to its highly dissected nature and sub-humid tropical landscape. Season wise field surveys were carried out for plant and insect species to document their number, distribution and correlation. In all 443 insect species belonging to 102 families and 19 orders were documented. The plant species comprises 544 species, 386 genera and 108 families. The plant diversity is important in shaping the insect species diversity. The localities with highest level of human interference accounted lowest number of individuals, species and diversity. The trends of these species in various habitats and the extent of their decline were also illustrated