Sightings of Gonepteryx amintha thibetana Nekrutenko, 1968 (Lepidoptera: Pieridae:Coliadinae) from Arunachal Pradesh, India: an addition to Indian butterfly fauna erroneously placed in southeastern Tibet earlier

 

Sanjay Sondhi1 & Purnendu Kumar Roy 2

 

1 Titli Trust, 49 Rajpur Road Enclave, Dhoran Khas, Dehradun, Uttarakhand248001, India

2 Gabriel’s Wharf, 56 Upper Ground, LONDON SE1 9PP.

1 sanjay.sondhi1@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 purnendu@ganesha.co.uk

 

 

 

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3278.4687-92  | ZooBank:urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0BD87248-CDBF-42E2-AB71-AD63A58693EF

 

Editor: James Young, Hong Kong Lepidopterists’ Society, Hong Kong.     Date of publication:26 August 2013 (online & print)

 

Manuscript details: Ms # o3278 | Received 27 July 2012 | Final received 14 February 2013 | Finally accepted 31 July 2013

 

Citation: Sondhi, S. & P.K. Roy (2013). Sightings of Gonepteryx amintha thibetana Nekrutenko, 1968 (Lepidoptera: Pieridae:Coliadinae) from Arunachal Pradesh, India: an addition to Indian butterfly fauna erroneously placed in southeastern Tibet earlier. Journal of Threatened Taxa 5(12): 4687–4692; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3278.4687-92

 

Copyright: © Sondhi& Roy 2013. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTTallows unrestricted use of this article in any medium, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.

 

Funding: This study which forms a part of the Lepidoptera project at Eaglenestwas funded by the Rufford Small

Grants to Sanjay Sondhi (RSG Project Reference No. 42.11.09).

 

Competing Interest: Authors declare no competing interest.

 

Acknowledgements: SS would like to acknowledge the support by Dr. Ramana Athreya, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, Goutam and Nandita Hazarika of EcoSystems-India, India Glow of the Begun Welfare Society and the Eaglenestcamp staff at Lama, our driver, Dawa, who assisted wholeheartedly in the surveys, and Geetha Iyer and Tshetsholo Naro who accompanied the authors for the field trip in April 2012. SS would also like to acknowledge the support provided by Anchal and Yash Sondhi, who tolerated his long absences from home.  The authors would like to thank Dr. David Lees (Curator – Lepidoptera Natural History Museum) for providing photographs of the Gonepteryx specimens in the museum including the holotype of G. amintha thibetana.

 

 

For images, table -- click here

 

The genus GonepteryxLeach, 1815 consists of nine species found throughout Europe, Africa and Asia (Beccaloni et al. 2003; Ratnasinghamet al. 2007).  Of these nine species, three species are hitherto reported from the Indian subcontinent, G.rhamni, G. mahaguruand G. farinosa, while six other species G.amintha, G. aspasia, G. carnipennis, G. cleobule, G. cleopatra, and G. eversi are extra-limital (Talbot 1939; Savela2013).  Two subspecies of Gonepteryx are usually listed as found within India.  The Common Brimstone G. rhamni nepalensis Doubleday, 1847 is recorded throughout the Himalaya from Kashmir east to Kumaon, Nepal, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh and the hill ranges of northeastern India.  The Lesser Brimstone G. mahaguru mahaguru Gistel, 1857 is recorded from Jammu and Kashmir east to Nepal.  In neighbouringcountries to India, bordering northeastern India, G. mahaguru zanekoides de Niceville, 1897, is reported from upper and western Myanmar while G. rhamni burmensis Tytler, 1926 is recorded from the southern Shan states in Myanmar (Talbot 1939).  The Powdered Brimstone G. farinosa chitralensis Moore, 1905 is only recorded from Chitral District in Pakistan.  However, this overlooks the Tibetan Brimstone (proposed common English name) G. amintha thibetana Nekrutenko, 1968 whose holotype was collected by Ludlow at Lalung, Pachakshiri, 7000 ft. (2100m), southeastern Tibet, on 06 May 1938.  Pachakshiri is nowadays known as Mechuka and is a region located on the upper tributaries of the Siyom River, West Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh, India.  We recorded G. amintha thibetana from EaglenestWildlife Sanctuary, West Kameng District, western Arunachal Pradesh and from Anini, Upper Dibang Valley District, northern Arunachal Pradesh.

Material and methods: Dr. Ramana Athreya initiated the EaglenestBiodiversity project in 2003 (Athreya 2006). While the initial surveys focussed primarily on the avifauna and herpetofauna of the area, lepidopteran surveys at EaglenestWildlife Sanctuary were conducted over a three-year period from May 2009 to April 2012, and are continuing. During this period, the area’s butterfly and moth diversity and density were assessed as part of a project funded by RuffordSmall Grants (http://www.ruffordsmallgrants.org/rsg/projects/sanjay_sondhi).  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 Pradesh Forest Department vide letter no CWL/G/13 (17)/06-07/12-14 dated 6 January 2010.

The Lepidoptera survey at Eaglenest WLS was conducted over three years over the following time periods 21–28 May 2009, 1–10 October 2010, 27–29 March 2011, 20–29 May 2011, 20–26 September 2011 and 20–26 April, 2012 involving 35 days of field work.

For comparison with other Gonepteryx species and subspecies known from the Indian region, specimens at the Natural History Museum, London were examined. Measurements and descriptions of the various Gonepteryxspecies and subspecies are based on specimens in the collection and existing literature (Talbot 1939; Nekrutenko 1973) (Images 2 & 3).

Discussions: G. amintha was described by Blanchard in 1871.  Since then, six subspecies of G. amintha have been described. Of these, G. amintha thibetana was described by Nekrutenko in 1968 with the type locality of Lalung, Pachakshiri, collected in 1938 by Ludlow.  We first sighted G. amintha thibetanabelow Lama camp (27010.171’N & 92027.492’E) at 10:31hr on 20 April 2012 at an altitude of 2,100m.  This was an individual whose underside was photographed, but not netted, hence its sex could not be confirmed, though it, is likely to be a male based on its wing coloration.  The second sighting of butterfly was a male, sighted at 10:51hr, a few hundred meters away from the first sighting.  This individual was netted and examined.  A third sighting of a male occurred at 09:25hr on 21 April 2012. This individual was seen flying along the path between Chakoo and Bompu (27005.128’N & 92024.361’E) at an estimated altitude of 2417m.  The butterfly was not seen during previous surveys conducted in the same area.  Image 1 shows the records of this species covered in this paper.

An earlier unreported record of the same species involved a collection of a butterfly by the second author, during a visit to Anini (28047.733’N & 95054.116’E), Upper Dibang Valley District, northern Arunachal Pradesh in July 1987 at an altitude of 1,830m.  This specimen (No. 982924), collected near Anini (28048.6’N & 95054.6’E) is now at the Natural History Museum, London.

The six subspecies of Gonepteryx that have been hitherto reported from the Indian region and the countries surrounding northeastern India are G. farinosa chitralensis, G. rhamni nepalensis, G. rhamni gilgitica, G. rhamni burmensis, G. mahaguru mahaguru and G. mahaguru zanekoides (Talbot 1939).  Males of these subspecies can be separated from G. amintha thibetanabased on external morphology alone with the size, wing coloration and shape being significant differentiators. Table 1 provides the key to separate these subspecies and their known distributions within the Indian region. Image 2 shows the male and female specimens of G. amintha thibetana, while Image 3 shows the male and female  specimensof the other subspecies in the Indian region.  Image 4 shows live individuals of G. amintha thibetana, G. rhamni nepalensis and G. mahaguru mahaguru from India. 

The males of G. amintha thibetana (Image 2 & 4) recorded from Eaglenest and Anini may easily be separated from all subspecies listed in Table 1 as none of them have orange-yellow fore wings with a large discocellular orange spot on the uppersideof the hind wing and a large brown discocellular spot on the underside of the hind wing. The wingspans of G. mahaguru and G. farinosa are significantly smaller than G. amintha. G. amintha thibetana has a crinkled hind wing with a small projection at v4, much smaller than both rhamniand mahaguru. The orange-yellow fore wings contrast strongly with the yellow hind wings in flight so it is quite surprising that this species has been overlooked.  The wing shape is also very distinctive and will serve to separate the female from both G. rhamniand G. mahaguru. 

G. amintha thibetana Nekrutenko, 1968 whose holotype was collected by Ludlow at Lalung (Lhalung 28038’3”N & 9404’23”E), Pachakshiri, 2100m, southeastern Tibet, 06 May 1938 is currently not reported from India (de Nicéville 1898; Bingham 1907; Evans 1932; Talbot 1939; Wynter Blyth 1957; Haribal 1992; Kehimkar 2008). However, Pachakshiri is nowadays known as Mechuka and is a region located on the upper tributaries of the Siyom River, West Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh, India.  Sightings of G. amintha thibetana in India are mapped out (Image 1), showing the wide range of the sightings in Lalung, Anini and Eaglenest. 

Further confirmation can be also taken from Ludlow’s own journey description given in ‘Takpoand Kongbo, S.E. Tibet’ F. Ludlow (1940).  Hence, the holotypeof G. amintha thibetana, itself was collected from India; hence its exclusion from Indian fauna is an error of omission.  The sightings from Anini and Eaglenestare new spot records of this subspecies, eastwards and westwards of its current known distribution in India and southeastern Tibet. 

In addition, there are no records of G. amintha thibetanafrom Bhutan (Poel & Wangchuk2007), Nepal (Smith 1994) and Myanmar (Kinyon2004).  A review of existing literature reveal that six specimens of G. aminthawere collected by Bailey in an expedition in 1913 in the Lower Tsang Po and Po Chu Valley between 1,560 and 2,187 m in June and July (Evans 1913).  Both these locations are in southeastern Tibet, and it is likely that these are the subspecies G. amintha thibetana. Hence, prior to the records in this paper, G. amintha thibetana has been recorded only from southeastern Tibet, in our neighbouring regions, other than its original description from Lhalung, Pachakshiri.

It should be noted that there are no records of any Gonepteryx species from Arunachal Pradesh in previous surveys (Evans 1914; Betts 1950) and more recent ones such as Athreya (2006) from Eaglenest,Borang (2008) from Dihang Dibang Biosphere Reserve and Gogoi(2012) from the Mishmi Hills.  The sighting of G. amintha thibetana from Anini, DibangValley, too, seems to be the only record of Gonepteryxspecies from that area.

We had only three sightings of the butterfly in April 2012 and no sightings in the months of March, May, September and October at Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary.  This seems to imply that it is either uncommon and local or simply overlooked. In addition, a review of literature reveals that the previous sightings of G. amintha are in the months of April, May, June and July.  With the later months of June and July coinciding with monsoons, it is likely that few surveys have been conducted in these months, accounting for the absence of records.  Further surveys are necessary to establish whether the spot records in this paper represent a permanent range extension of this species, and whether its presence has simply been overlooked or whether  theserecords are just sightings of vagrants.

 

References

 

Athreya, R. (2006). Eaglenest Biodiversity Project (2003–2006). Conservation Resources for Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary. KaatiTrust, Pune. <http://www.iiserpune.ac.in/~rathreya/Downloads/athreya2006_ebp.pdf>

Beccaloni, G., M. Scoble, I. Kitching, T. Simonsen, G. Robinson, B. Pitkin, A. Hine & C. Lyal (Eds.). (2003). The Global Lepidoptera Names Index (LepIndex). World Wide Web electronic publication. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/lepindex (accessed 15 July 2012).

Betts, F.N. (1950). On a collection of butterflies from the Balipara Frontier Tract and the Subansiri area (northern Assam). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 49(3): 488–502.

Bingham, C.T. (1907). The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma. Butterflies-Volume II. Taylor and Francis Ltd., London.

Borang, A., B.B. Bhatt, M. Tamuk, A. Borkotoki & J. Kalita (2008). Butterflies of Dihang Dibang Biosphere Reserve of Arunachal Pradesh, Eastern Himalayas, India. Bulletin of Arunachal Forest Research 24(1&2): 41–53. <http://www.sfri.org/images/pdf/vol24/vol242008.page41-53.pdf>

de Nicéville, L. (1897). Little known Butterflies from the Indo- and Austro-Malayan Region, The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 66(1897): 564–565+plate 1.

Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies—2nd Edition. Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay, x+454pp+32pl.

Evans, W.H. (1914). A list of butterflies caught by Capt. F. M. Bailey in S. East Tibet during 1913. The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 23(1914): 532–546

Gogoi, M.J. (2012). Butterflies (Lepidoptera) of Dibang Valley, Mishmi Hills, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(12): 3137–3160; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2975.3137-60

Haribal, M. (1992). The Butterflies of The Sikkim Himalaya and Their Natural History. Sikkim Nature Conservation Foundation, Gangtok, 217pp.

Kehimkar, I. (2008). The Book of Indian Butterflies. Bombay Natural History Society and Oxford University Press, Oxford, xvi+497pp.

Kinyon, S. (2004). An Illustrated Checklist for the Butterflies of Myanmar. Smithsonian Institution.

Ludlow, F. (1940). Takpoand Kongbo, S.E. Tibet, Himalayan Journal 12, Himalayan Club.

Nekrutenko, Y.P. (1970). Comments on forms of Gonepteryx aspasia (Pieridae) described by Shu-itiMurayama. Journal of the Lepidopterist Society 24(3): 213–217.

Nekrutenko, Y.P .(1973).  A new subspecies of Gonepteryx amintha (Pieridae) from Yunnan, Mainland China, with comparative notes. Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera 11(4): 235–244, 1972(1973).

van der Poel, P. & T. Wangchuk (2007). Butterflies of Bhutan. Mountains, hills and valleys between 800 and 3000m. Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN). Thimphu, Bhutan.

Ratnasingham, S. & P.D.N. Hebert (2007). BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data System (www.barcodinglife.org). Molecular Ecology Notes 7, 355–364 (accessed on 14 July 2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-8286.2006.01678.x    

Savela, M. (2013) http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/pieridae/coliadinae/gonepteryx/index (accessed 12 February 2013)

Smith, C. (1994). Butterflies of Nepal. Majupuria, T.C. (Ed.). Tecpress Service L.P. Bangkok, Thailand.

Swinhoe, C. (1905–1910). Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. VII. Rhopalocera. Family Pieridae [printed in error: “Family Papilionidae”]. Sub-familyPierinae (continued). Family Lycaenidae. Sub-families Gerydinae,Lycaenopsinae and Everinae.Reeve & Co, London, 286pp.

Talbot, G. (1939). The Fauna of British India Including Ceylon and Burma. Butterflies. Vol. I. Taylor and Francis Ltd., London.

Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957). Butterflies of the Indian Region. Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay, xx+523pp+72pl.