Entomophagy (i.e. use of insects as food) is practiced in many parts of the world including India but the use of insects, as medicine is done in very few parts of the world and we are fortunate that North-East people of India are rich in this traditional medicinal knowledge. Tribes of North-East India have been using several insect based traditional drugs to cure several diseases. Over 500 species of insects are used as medicine to cure common ailments to complicated ailments in the North-East from time immemorial. Some valuable information regarding traditional medicinal uses of common insects by folk doctors has been summarised.

A checklist of 25 species of Orthoptera recorded from the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary is presented here along with a series of indices such as Simpson's, Hill's, Margalef's, Mehinick's and evenness.The order is comprised of 25 species of 21 genera and 12 families.This preliminary study indicates many more species yet to be recorded from the area.

A checklist of 25 species of Orthoptera recorded from the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary is presented here along with a series of indices such as Simpson's, Hill's, Margalef's, Mehinick's and evenness. The order is comprised of 25 species of 21 genera and 12 families. This preliminary study indicates many more species yet to be recorded from the area. Gibbon Wild Life Sanctuary is located in Jorhat district of Assam, India. The Sanctuary covers an area of 19.49km2 of tropical semi evergreen forest on the flat plains of Brahmaputra river. It extends between 26040'-26045'N & 94020'-94025'E. The altitudinal range is 100-120m. Average temperature ranges from 27.90C to 18.950C and average humidity ranges between 64.5% and 94.5 %. Annual rainfall of the study site is 249cm. The Sanctuary is rich in floral composition including trees like Dipterocarpus retusus B.L., Terminalia myriocarpa Heurek et Muell., Michelia champaca Linn., Canarium resiniferum L., Castanopsis sp. Spach. etc. The Sanctuary also has plantations of highly valued plants of Dipterocarpus retusus and Aqualaria agolacha Roxb. The diverse life forms of the forest includes the world famous Indian ape, Hoolock Gibbon Hoolock hoolock hoolock (Harlan), Stumped-tailed Macaque Macaca arctoides, Pig-tailed Macaque Macaca leonina, Capped Langur Trachypithecus pileatus (Blyth) along with elephants, leopards, reptiles like pythons and numerous birds. The Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in the northeastern region of India has not been subjected to serious scientific studies and the status of available scientific information is meager. Most of the forest areas have degraded due to large scale felling of trees in the past for tea cultivation. The people of nearby villages are dependent on the sanctuary mostly for firewood, which is the main cause of degradation of the forest resulting in threats to biodiversity. There is no authenticated record of the insect fauna of the Sanctuary, and therefore a study was initiated as an initial step on inventorying the orthopteran fauna.