Dear Friends
Greetings from India !!

Welcome to the website being developed by H.V. Ghate (Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Shivajinagar, Pune 411 005, India). In the initial stages the aim is to float a number of color photos of insects found in the various parts of India with emphasis on images of Cerambycidae, Cassidinae and Mantodea. Apart from these 3 groups of insects there will also be images of other insects such as butterflies, moths, bugs and other beetles. The images will be mainly of insects which we have in the collections of Zoology Department, Modern College. However in the later stages images from other people can also be included, especially of live insects. All images are copyright but can be freely used with due acknowledgement. At present only “dorsal views” are shown but other views will also be included at a later date. Similarly all species lists are arranged alphabetically only and species names alone (without authority) are provided. When additional data are added, the names of the ‘authorities’ of the species will also be added.

Here we will be hosting images of identified as well as unidentified insects. Experts and naturalists viewing this website are requested to inform us of identity or closeness of any image of unidentified species. Comments on identified insects, particularly on changes in nomenclature, etc. will also be welcome as the subject is very vast and I can never hope to do full justice without your input! In fact one purpose floating the images of these insects is to seek help from experts all over !!

While working with certain group of insects and other animals during the past 3 decades, I have become aware, that barring a few groups, there are too few images of insects found in India on the internet. Taxonomy of many groups of insects and other invertebrates will be easier if detailed descriptions and images of our animals are freely available on the internet. Lack of original descriptions and types / comparable identified material coupled with lack of images is slowing down biodiversity assessment of many groups of insects. We are also unaware of full geographical distribution of many of our insect species and so there are many surprises in store, I am sure. Equally important is the information about the life history stages of various species of insects and their identity.

We hope this website will stimulate students and other amateurs who are interested in insects around. People interested in natural history of insects may also find this website interesting and we hope there will be a good feedback.

We are looking forward to your comments and feedback and will improve our website as and when necessary. Many more images will be added soon.

Many of insects that are featuring on this website were collected as a part of routine research work being done at Zoology Department (Modern College), by H.V. Ghate and students. This work was sometimes funded by national funding bodies such as University Grants Commission (UGC, New Delhi), Department of Biotechnology (DBT, New Delhi) and Board of College and University Development (BCUD)-University of Pune, Pune 411007. In other cases the work was done on my own. The assistance to develop this website is partly out of the funds provided by Board of College and University Development (BCUD), University of Pune which were granted to carry out work on Indian Cerambycidae beetles at Modern College.

In addition, H.V. Ghate has been receiving help from numerous experts in the field of taxonomy. It is impossible to mention names of all the people who have helped my research and who have been a constant source of inspiration. I must confess that whatever little work I did with the help of my students would not have been possible without generous help from these experts. They have helped us with literature, sent images from their collections, and have provided crucial insight in the work. Moreover, they have responded to my constant pestering (of a sort) for help and given their precious time for our work. They have also commented time and again on our specimens / images. I take this opportunity to thank them all.

I must however mention some names! Prof. Lech Borowiec and Dr.. Jolanta Swietojanska (Wroclaw University, Poland) have been of immense help in my attempt to study local Cassidinae. Dr. Carolus Holzschuh (Austria) provides critical comments on Cerambycidae all the time. For Mantodea, I have benefited from Dr. Roger Roy (Paris, France), Dr. Reinhard Ehrmann (Karlsruhe, Germany) and Dr. Tushar Mukherjee (Kolkata).

In addition, I would also like to thank the following people who have been helping me in one or the other way: Prof. C. Viraktamath (Bangalore), Andreas Herrmann (Germany), Andreas Gumprecht (Germany), Roman Holynski (Poland), Dan Heffern (USA), Francesco Vitali (Italy), Darren Mann (UK), Steven Lingafelter, Peter Smetacek (Naini Tal), Denis Kasatkin (Russia), Marco Bologna (Italy), Fred McDonald, Magnus Apelquist (Sweden), Bert Gustafsson (Sweden), Al Samuelson and Al Allison (both from Hawaii), D. Raychaudhari (Kolkata), P.M. Sureshan , Prathapan Diwakaran, Anil Mahabal, D.B. Bastawade, C.R. Basu and P. Mukherjee (Kolkata) and Ashok Captain (Pune). My students Anand Padhye, Sachin Ranade, Nilesh Rane, Abhilasha Sen, Sagar Pandit, Rahul Bahulikar as well as friends S. Thakur and Amol Patwardhan have also helped me.

It is also my pleasure to record my sincere thanks to the Authorities of Modern College where I spent the past 30 years in teaching and learning! Without the facilities and encouragement from the college authorities, my colleagues, especially Dr. Arun Bhalerao, at the department and my students, this work would not have become possible.

HOPE YOU ENJOY WHAT YOU SEE AND LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR COMMENTS

HEMANT VASANT GHATE, Ph.D.
Modern College, Pune 411 005, India