Abstract

About 16, 000 species of insects have been recorded from the Indian forests which comprise various ecosystems ranging from the snow-clad boreal forests of the Himalayas to the multitiered evergreen forests of the Western and Eastern Ghats. They represent nearly a quarter of the 67, 000 species of insects recorded from all habitats in India, but strict classification of insects into forest and non-forest insects is meaningless. In general, forest insects have been studied not as fauna representing a particular forest habitat but as membres of various taxonomic groups. It is shown that insect species reported from the Indian forests represent only a fraction of the existing unexplored fauna