Biodiversity of drosophila in three different altitudes of biligiriranga hills wildlife sanctuary

The genus Drosophila represents an unprecedented model system, it has been initially used to understand basic genetics i.e.., Pattern of inheritance, speciation and evolution, comparative experimental research and to study human diseases. Further, many of the mechanisms from the cellular level to molecular levels were very well conserved both in Drosophila and human beings. Therefore, information on the biodiversity of genus Drosophila is limited. Many species of the genus Drosophila are endemic to certain regions and a few are cosmopolitan, dispersed vastly in association with human activities. Hence the present investigation has been undertaken biodiversity of Drosophila in Biligirirangana Hills. This study revealed that altitudinal variation in Drosophila species of B.R. hills in Karnataka, which is present in between eastern ghats and western ghats. Post monsoon studies of this area revealed that a total of 1739 Drosophila flies belonging to 10 species of 3 sub genera were collected at altitudes of 300m, 700m, and 1200m. Further there are about 8 different species belongs to sub genus Sophophora where as in subgenus Drosphila and Scapto Drosophila represent one species each. The population density varied in all the altitudes and its sequence is as fallows: 300m>1200m>700m. The least population density was found in 700m. This shows effect evolution on population density. The diversity of the Drosophila community was also assessed by applying the Simpson, Shannon-wiener, and Berger-parker index and cluster analysis to asses the Biodiversity in B. R. hills.