ARPHA Preprints, doi: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e154400
Larval description with notes on biology of Holotrichia fissa (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from central India
Suvarna Khadakkar‡, Ashish Tiple§, Arun Khurad|‡ Indian Institute of science, Bangalore, India§ Vidyabharti College, Seloo, Wardha, India| RTM Nagpur University, Nagpur, India
Corresponding author: Suvarna Khadakkar ( suvarnask17@gmail.com ) © Suvarna Khadakkar, Ashish Tiple, Arun Khurad. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Khadakkar S, Tiple A, Khurad A (2025) Larval description with notes on biology of Holotrichia fissa (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from central India. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e154400 |  |
Abstract
Though economically important, the field of description of larval morphology and taxonomy of Scarabs is restricted to a very few publications specifically from India. This study was planned to study and document the morphology of developmental stages of one of the most commonly occurring species of scarab, Holotrichia fissa (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from central India. Here we describe in detail the morphological characteristics of egg, first, second and third instar larva and pupa along with notes on biology of the species. The details of third instar larva are described focussing on the structure of Cranium, Antenna, Labrum, Clypeus, Epipharynx, Mandibles, Maxilla, Thorax, Abdomen, and Raster pattern. This study adds to the knowledge of morphology of the developmental stages the species.
Keywords
White grubs, India, larval description, Melolonthinae, scarabs