User:Kavita K yadav

KAVITA K ROY a Research Scholar, at INDIAN INSTITUTE OF NATURAL RESINS & GUMS. This is the only Institute in all over Asia working exclusivelly on Lac and its cultivation.

I am interested to let you know about a sedentary insect name LAC INSECT, with its lots of commrcial importance.

LAC Lac is a beautiful gift of nature to the mankind by virtue of age old knowledge on its utility, as mentioned in Atharveda (1500 B.C.), Matsya puran, Mahabharta (Lakshagriha), Parini, Periplus (Greek literature), Kumar Sambhav, Ain-i-Akbari etc. and therefore, considered as natural heritage of the country. Lac insects are gregarious, scale insects, thriving on a number of plant species, secreting lac resin and wax which  forms a  protective covering around their body. Lac insects are reported from about 400 species of host plants. In India, these insects are mainly cultured on palas (Butea monosperma), kusum (Schleichera oleosa) and ber (Zizyphus mauritiana) in the plains and plateau region of the country by the tribal and other downtrodden people as a cash crop. Also, 4-5% lac is collected from other species of host plants such as Ficus spp., Acacia spp., Albizzia spp etc. are noteworthy.

The first scientific work on lac and lac products commenced in 1709 with the memoir submitted to the Government of France by Fr. Tachard at Pondicherry. However, the proper identification of the causative organism of lac as a scale insect was done by Dr. Kerr in 1782 from Patna, Bihar, who rightly identified and named the type specimen as Coccus lacca under the family Tachardiidae of the order Hemiptera. The generic name was later on changed to Kerria by Varshney, 1966.

The lac culture in India presents a luxuriant biodiversity including 19 species of lac insects, hundreds of species of lac host plants, four species of lac predators, about 36 species of beneficial and harmful parasitoids, several microbes and a variety of host pest complex. With the growing global demand of lac, the lac insects and associated fauna were extensively studied by Chamberlin (1923, 1925), Mahdihassan (1923), Misra (1930) Glover (1937), Kapur (1958), Varshney  (1966, 1977, 1996), Mishra & Sushil (2000) etc. and the lac host complex by Srinivasan (1956), Roonwal (1958), Roonwal et. al. (1958) Varshney & Teotia (1967), Purkayastha (1973), Sharma, et.al., (1997)   etc.. With heavy deforestation, increased human intervention and decline in price of lac in the overseas market, the area under lac cultivation has shrunken only to plateaus of Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa (Fig 1 & 2), thereby threatening the biodiversity around lac culture.

The paper presented herein provide an opportunity to peep in to the past glory of bio-diversity of lac ecosystem and critically analyse the present status vis-à-vis a sharp probe on endangered species of lac insects, host plants and associated fauna and throws light on their conservational aspects with special reference to India, which is a major producer of lac in the world.

Biodiversity in lac culture :

The lac culture includes diversified range of biotic complex ranging from different groups of host plants to wide range of insects. Component wise details are mentioned below.

a) 	Lac Insects :

Although the  lac insects are found throughout the tropical  and sub-tropical regions of the world, the tropical forests of India, Thailand, China and Vietnam are the places of their occurrence  in abundance. European countries are, however, devoid of these insects due to  very cold climate during winter season. In India, lac insects have been reported from tarai region of himalaya in north to the Kanya kumari in south and from the Rajasthan to North East region. Amongst 86 species of lac insects recorded so far, 19 have been reported from  India under two genera on the basis of female morphology. (Fig. 3; Table-1). Due to heavy deforestation, some of these species are either extinct or endangered.

Table-1 : Indian species of lac insects

Sl. No.	Species	Host	Locality Genus     : Kerria Subgenus : Kerria

1.	K.(K.) albizziae (Green,  1911)	Landolphia sp., 	Bihar

2.	K.(K.) brancheata Varshney, 1966	Schleichera oleosa	Bihar 3.	K.(K.) chamberlini* Varshney,  1966	Ficus infectoria	Jodhpur (Raj)

4a. K.(K.) chinensis chinensis (Mahdihassan, 1923)	Cajanus cajan	N.E. region 4b. K.(K.) chinensis kydia (Misra, 1930)  	Kydia calycina	Silchar (Assam)

5.	K.(K.) communis (Mahdihassan, 1923)	Ficus mysorensis	Mysore

6.	K.(K.) ebrachiata* (Chamberlin, 1923)	Ficus elastica	Manbhum (Bihar)

7a. K.(K.) fici fici (Green, 1903)	Ficus religiosa	Mongher (Bihar)

7b. K.(K.) fici jhansiensis* (Misra, 1930)	Zizyphus mauritiana Jhansi (U.P.) 8.	K.(K.) indicola* (Kapur, 1958)	   -do-	Jamunia (U.P.)

9a. K.(K.) lacca lacca (Kerr, 1978)	Ficus religiosa	Patna (Bihar)

9b. K.(K.) lacca ambigua* (Mishra, 1930)	Jheolia (Scientific name not known) Guna, Jhansi (U.P.) 9c. K.(K.)lacca mysorensis (Mahdihassan,   1923) Shorea talura	Mysore 10.	K.(K.) nagoliensis (Mahdihassan, 1923)	S.oleosa	Raipur (M.P.)

11.	K.(K.) nepalensis Varshney, 1977	Litchi chinensis	Champaran (Bihar)

12.	K.(K.) pusana* (Misra, 1930)	Z.mauritiana	Darbhanga (Bihar)

13.	K.(K) sharda Mishra & Sushil, 2000 S.oleosa	Mayurbhanj (Orissa)

Subgenus : Chamberliniella

14.	K.(C.) rangoonensis* (Chamberlin, 1925)	Quisqualis sp. Assam

Genus : Paratachardina

15.	Paratachardina lobata (Green, 1922)	Pongamia pinnata Bangalore 16.	P. mithila*  Varshney,1968	Photinia notoniana Shillong 17.	P. silvestrii  (Mahdihassan, 1923)	Ixora parviflora	Mysore

18.	P. ternata* (Chamberlin, 1923)	Acacia chundra	Travancore

19.	P. theae* (Green & Mann,1907)	Thea chinensis	Sikkim


 * Endangered or extinct species.