BIOECOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON A PIGMY 
LOCUST, POTUA SABULOSA HANCOCK 
(TETRIGIDAE: ORTHOPTERA)* 
By S. Y. Paranjape and A. M. Bhalerao 
Post Graduate Research Centre, Department of Zoology, 
Modern College, S’nagar, PUNE-411 005 (M.S. India). 
Introduction 
Faunistic studies of the tetrigids of Indian subcontinent have been 
made by Kirby (1914) and Hancock (1915). These are of great fun- 
damental value but dealing necessarily with the taxonomic descrip- 
tion. The biology and ethoecology of many species of tetrigids are 
largely unknown. Moreover, there is practically no published 
research on the bioecology of Indian tetrigids. 
The present paper deals with bioecological observations on a 
tetrigid, Potua sabulosa Hancock. This work is based on the field 
observations of well over six years, in certain localities in Maharash- 
tra State (M.S.) a south-western region of India. It forms a part of 
‘Survey, Taxonomy and Etho-ecological studies on Tetrigids,’ an 
on-going research project (F.1-20/79-PP) supported by Indian 
Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. 
Potua sabulosa belongs to sub-family Cladonotinae. The species 
was first taxonomically described by Hancock (1915) and the habi- 
tat was recorded as Venna valley, Mahabaleshwar (M’shwar), Dist. 
Satara. In our extensive survey, we collected P. sabulosa not only 
from Venna valley but also from other valleys in M’shwar, namely 
Blue valley, Krishna valley and Koyana valley. In the region under 
survey, we also collected these insects from certain other localities of 
Western Ghats of Maharashtra, such as, Pratapgad, Panchgani in 
Dist. Satara and Sinhagad, in Dist. Pune. Our collection of P. 
sabulosa from these new localities constitutes a first record. 
Materials and Methods 
Samples of living Potua were collected from the above mentioned 
localities. The insects are somewhat difficult to locate on account of 
* Manuscript received by the editor November 12, 1984. 
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