author(s)
Debabrata Mukherjee, Soumen Roy, Tanmay Bhattacharya and Kamales Kumar Misra

abstract
Six arthropod orders, viz., Hemiptera, Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Araneae and their associations with plant species in the Falta Export Processing Zone (FEPZ) and non-industrial area West Bengal, India, is addressed. The study was conducted in fifteen study sites of which ten are within the industrial area covering 2-10 km of aerial distance of FEPZ and five sites of non-industrial area are 20 km to 32 km away of the industrial complex. A total of 139 species of arthropods are recorded covering 5 insect orders and one arachnid order Araneae which include 121 genera, 45 families and 5 sub-families of the above mentioned orders. This arthropod community were collected from 74 species of plants belonging to 30 families. These plants are commonly distributed in all the 15 study sites. Plant families, Asclepiadaceae, Poaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Solanaceae harbour species of five arthropod orders. Caparidaceae and Cypreraceae harbour only orthopteran insects while Polygonaceae and Boraginaceae are infested by hymenopteran insects, and Chenopodiaceae and Caesalpiniaceae harbour only hemipteran insects. Plant families, Anonaceae, Saporaceae, Acanthaceae, Nyctaginaceae, Verbenaceae, Dioscoriaceae, Plamnaceae and Flacourtiaceae harbour only coleopteran insects. Two families, Amaranthaceae and Rubiaceae harbour both coleopteran insects and arachnids whereas plants of Rhamnaceae family harbour only arachnids. The study confers comparative distribution of insects among plant species depending on their trophic relationship while Araneae maintains a housing affiliation with the inhabiting plants.