Sightings of Bath White Pontia daplidice moorei Röber,
1907 (Lepidoptera: Pieridae: Pierinae:Pierini) from Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, India
Tshetsholo Naro1 & Sanjay Sondhi 2
1 North East Network, P.O. Chizami, Phek District, Nagaland
797102, India
2 Titli Trust, 49 Rajpur Road Enclave, Dhoran Khas, Dehradun, Uttarakhand248001, India
1 tshetsholo@gmail.com, 2 sanjay.sondhi1@gmail.com (corresponding
author)
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3308.4122-4 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:65F810D6-E222-465E-83FA-4F9C3CE8B9AF
Editor: Arun P.
Singh, Rain Forest Research Institute (ICFRE), JorhatIndia. Date
of publication: 26 April 2013 (online & print)
Manuscript details: Ms #
o3308 | Received 17 August 2012 | Final received 02 January 2013 | Finally
accepted 26 March 2013
Citation: Naro,
T. & S. Sondhi (2013).Sightings of Bath White Pontia daplidice moorei Röber, 1907 (Lepidoptera: Pieridae:Pierinae: Pierini) from
Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa5(7): 4122–4124; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3308.4122-4
Copyright: © Naro& Sondhi 2013. Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium,
reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and
the source of publication.
Funding: Rufford Small
Grants and North East Network.
Competing Interest: None.
Acknowledgements: SS
would like to acknowledge Rufford Small Grants for
funding the Lepidoptera survey in the KamengProtected Area Complex.
TN would like to acknowledge North East Network (NEN) for
its continued support in many ways.
The species Pontia daplidiceLinnaeus, 1758, has a very widespread distribution from western Europe,
northern Africa, eastward through west Asia, the western Himalaya in Pakistan
and India, the central Himalaya in Nepal and south west China. The subspecies Pontia daplidice moorei Röber, 1907 is reported in the literature from the western
Himalaya in Pakistan and India, the central Himalaya in Nepal as well as in
northern Thailand, Laos and Yunnan.
Materials and Methods: The observations in this
paper are part of an ongoing lepidoptera survey in
the Kameng Protected Area Complex by Sanjay Sondhi. The
survey, supported by the Rufford Small Grants program
<www.ruffordsmallgrants.org/rsg/projects/sanjay_sondhi> is documenting
the butterfly and moth fauna of the area. The study area includes Pakke Tiger Reserve, Sessa Orchid Wildlife Sanctuary and EaglenestWildlife Sanctuary in the West Kameng District of
Arunachal Pradesh. The methodology
adopted for the butterfly survey was visual encounter surveys along fixed
trails accompanied by photo-documentation of the butterflies seen. For cryptic species, the butterflies
were netted, photographed and released. Permission for conducting the biodiversity assessments was received from
the Arunachal Forest Department vide letter no CWL/G/13 (17)/06-07/12-14 dated
06 January 2010.
Butterfly surveys have been
ongoing in Chizami, PhekDistrict, Nagaland since January 2011 as part of a
biodiversity documentation program being conducted by the North East Network, Chizami.
Discussions: The lepidopterasurvey in Kameng Protected Area Complex in western
Arunachal Pradesh involved 60 days of field work spread over the months of May
2009, October 2010, March 2011, May 2011, September 2011 and April 2012. During the surveys, a single individual
of P. daplidice moorei was
recorded at Sessa Orchid Wildlife Sanctuary at
08:54hr on 28 March 2011 at an altitude of 900m (27006’02”N & 92032’55”E). A solitary individual of the subspecies
was also recorded at 14:58hr on 15 May 2011 at Langka(27001’15”N & 93002’22”E) in PakkeTiger Reserve at an altitude of 170m. These records are the first ever reported sightings of this butterfly
from Arunachal Pradesh (Images 1–2).
P. daplidice moorei was sighted on 27 March 2012
at 10:35hr at Chizami (25024’0”N & 94024’0”E)
in Phek District of Nagaland at an altitude of
981m. Subsequently, the butterfly
has been seen on numerous occasions in Chizami during
May–July 2012 and March–April in 2013, proving that it has
established its presence in this locality (Images 3–4). A photographic record
from Chizami of P. daplidice moorei was obtained on 12 April 2008 by Roshan Sahi, revealing that the
butterfly has been present here, at least since 2008.
Perusing recent literature, Kehimkar (2008) reports the distribution of the butterfly
from Jammu and Kashmir to Uttarakhand in India, which
is also the distribution recorded by Singh (2010). Kehimkar also
states that the butterfly is recorded from Afghanistan and Pakistan to the west
and Nepal to the east.
Bingham (1907) reports its distribution in“western Himalaya” specifically mentioning Chitral, Ladakh, Kashmir and Baluchistan. Similarly, Evans (1932) reports its
distribution as Baluchistan (in Afghanistan), east to Chitral(in Pakistan) and Murree (in Kashmir). Talbot (1939), too, restricts its
distribution to northwestern Himalaya, exactly like Evans. Wynter-Blyth
(1957) reports its distribution in Baluchistan, Chitral and Peshawar (both in Pakistan), Kashmir, east to Shipki (in Himachal Pradesh). Singh (2009) reports the presence of the
species from Kedarnath in Uttarakhand. Smith (1994) reports records from Nepal,
stating it is “found in West to Central Nepal; scattered and fairly rare to the
West, also in Central Terai”. Smith also mentions that though it is
common in Kathmandu Valley today it was absent in the 1930s. It is reported from Bhutan by van der Poel & Wangchuk (2007),
though Singh (2012) did not record it during a recent lowland forest survey
conducted in Bhutan. Haribal (1992) does not report this species from
Sikkim. Neither are there records
of this subspecies from neighbouring countries namely
Myanmar (Kinyon 2004) or Bangladesh (Larsen
2004). However, Inayoshi(2012) reports the distribution of the subspecies in “N.W. Himalayas, Northern
Thailand, Laos, Tibet and Yunnan”.
A review of older butterfly
publications from northeastern India reveals that Captain Bailey recorded this
subspecies during his expedition through western China, southeastern Tibet and
Mishmi Hills in 1911 from “Liang ho kou” (South 1913)
but did not record this subspecies during his expedition through southeastern
Tibet in 1913 in what is now Arunachal Pradesh (Evans 1914). Betts (1950), too, did not record this
in western Arunachal Pradesh, nor did Tytler (1915)
report it from Manipur or the Naga Hills. There are no records of this subspecies in more recent surveys from
Arunachal Pradesh by Athreya (2006), Borang et al. (2008), and Gogoi(2012).
Recent records of this
subspecies from northeastern India include sightings in Keibul Lamjao in Manipur (Singh et al. 2011) and the website
of the Indian Foundation of Butterflies (Anonymous 2013) which has photographic
records of this subspecies from Buxa Tiger Reserve,
West Bengal in March 2011 by Tarun Karmakar. Other
records on the website are from Lower Mukung, West
Sikkim District, Sikkim in May 2011 by Gaurav Agavekar and from Dzulekie, Kohima, Nagaland and in May 2012 by Krushnamegh Kunte.
A review of the altitudes at
which this subspecies has been sighted is useful. Kehimkar(2008) stated that this is recorded between 1,200–2,700 m, while stating
that it migrates. Wynter-Blyth states that this is a butterfly primarily of
the “higher inner hills, but it may be found on the plains at Peshawar in
April. Common in
the Valley of Kashmir”. Our
record at Pakke was at 170m in March, while the
records in Sessa and Chizamiwere at higher altitudes, closer to its known altitudinal range.
Conclusion: These new locality records of
Bath White P. daplidice mooreisuggests that this subspecies has possibly been overlooked and has a wider
distribution range in India than currently reported in the literature. It is also possible that the subspecies
has colonized new areas in the north-east over time
and is still doing so. P. daplidice moorei has been reared on Lepidium ruderale (Brassicaceae)
in India (Sharma 2005), which is a temperate species, and is likely to be found
throughout temperate India, including northeastern India, thereby permitting
colonization by this species.
In India, the distribution of
this subspecies is in the Himalaya
and hills of north-east extending across Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh,
Nagaland and Manipur. Outside of
India, the butterfly is known from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, southeastern Tibet, northern Thailand, Laos and southern
China (Yunnan).
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