Abstract

The paper deals with the study of benthic insect diversity of a sewage fed pond of Aligarh. Although, insects are common components of the benthic communities, their role in the dynamics of the aquatic ecosystem and their contribution to biomass production is not well known. The compostion and abundance of benthic insects are commonly used as bioindicator to determine the impact of water pollution. The present study was carried out during the period of 2009 to 2010. The overall density in the pond constitutes twenty species. Among these species, five species belongs to order Diptera, and six species are of the Order Hemiptera, four species from Coleoptera, three species from Tricophtera and two species from Ephemeroptera. Different biological indexes were used to determine the diversity, dominance, species richness and evenness of the observed benthic insect. The Shannon-Weiner diversity index in the selected water body indicated that Chautal pond is moderately polluted. The results emphasized the importance of benthic insect population which plays an important role as pollution indicator, fish food, and important component of food chain.

Key words: Benthos, insect, pollution, diversity indices.