Author(s):

Arun Kumar Singh and Ramesha Barrikkad

Abstract: The taxonomic study was ultimately narrowed down to the 27 specimens of Diocalandra frumenti collected from four agroecological region of Kerala. All collected specimens were segregated into two different groups owing to their morphological variations. The present study includes detailed description of all the taxonomic characters like head, rostrum, (dorsal and lateral), antennae, pronotum, elytron, femur, tibia, tarsus, venter and genitalia and presented with 35 illustrations and 22 line diagrams. Taxonomic description of the species are supplemented with standard taxonomic terminology along with genital characters and loaded with the morphometric ratios. The taxonomic study revealed that, morphological variations present among the groups may be due to environmental conditions, availability of food, and life stage of the plant on which they are feeding on. All the variations within the species were depicted with the differential distinguishing characters along with line diagrams.

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