author(s)
Vijaya V Bajad, DB Undirwade, SV Dhonde and SM Dadmal

abstract
A survey conducted at Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola to study the incidence and diversity of scarabs during kharif 2014. Scarabaeid faunal activity was noticed from second week of June to third week of October. Peak activity of scarabs was noticed in 30th meterological week (21^st–27^th July) scarab beetles population exhibited non-significant, negative correlation with maximum temperature, evaporation, bright sunshine hours and significant, positive with minimum temperature, relative humidity and rainfall. Four families viz; Scarabaeidae, Hybosoridae, Geotrupidae and Trogidae in superfamily Scarabaeoidea were registered. Family Scarabaeidae (84.58%) added affluent fauna to the Akola followed by Hybosoridae (7.31%) and Geotrupidae (4.74%) while Trogidae (3.35%) distributed least. Amongst the subfamilies, Scarabaeinae (36.56%) found dominant, followed by Cetoniinae (18.97%) and Rutelinae (16.40%). Diversity index of Scarabaeinae recorded abundance in population (0.3678), followed by Cetoniinae (0.3153) and Rutelinae (0.2964). However, moderate to rich Shannon biodiversity index (H^| = 1.6903) was noticed in terms of subfamilies.