Abstract
This paper describes the diet of 1-area indica in the agroecosystem of central Punjab where wheat, sugarcane, and fodders are dominant crops. Cereals (viz., wheat, sorghum, and millet) together with Chowpodiui,lucern, and Spergula were the main constituents of the diet of T. indica captured from wheat, sugarcane, cot-ton, and fodder crops as well as from farm and village houses. On average, wheat constituted more than 50% of the rat's diet. Although seeds of plants predominated the rat's diet, yet stems and leaves were also eaten in fairly good quantities.
INTRODUCTION
The Indian gebril or the antelope rate (Tatera indica) ranges from India through Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria (Walker et al., 1964). In Pakistan, it occurs in all the four provinces and is most common in the Indus Plain (Roberts, 1977). The gebril has broad ecological niche and infests agricultural fields in fairly good numbers (Prasad, 1954; Beg et al., 1977). Introduction of canal ir-rigation at the turn of present century seems to have enabled the gebril to extend its range from river banks to farmlands of canal colonies (Taber et al., 1967). In some vil-lages, it has become commensal (Roberts, 1977). The present paper documents infor-mation about the diet of the rat in the agroecosystern of central Punjab in which wheat, sugarcane and fodders are dominant crops.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Specimens of T. indica were snap-trapped from August, 1988 to April, 1990 from a variety of farm crops as well as from farm and village houses of central Punjab.
355
Reference slides of different parts of 26 candidate food plants collected from the fields were prepared to facilitate identifica-tion of food particles present in the stom-achs of the captured specimens. Microscopic slides of reference material and the stomach contents were prepared following Williams (1962) and Ward (1970). Ten fields from each of the slides were examined under 60 magnification of a microscope to determine the frequency of occurrence and relative density of each of the food items. Per cent dry weight of the individual items was cal-culated following Williams (1962) and Ward (1970). For assessing habitat-related diver-sity in the rat's diet, Berger-Parker index was used.
RESULTS
The specimens of contents of 91 stom-achs of the antelope rat (Tatou indica) captured from fodder (12 specimens), wheat (12 specimens), and cotton (17 specimens) fields, and from farm (45 specimens) and village (5 specimens) houses were examined. On the whole, seed, stems, and/or leaves of 21 species of plants were consumed by these specimens.
