Recent sightings of two very rare butterflies,Lethe margaritae Elwes, 1882 and Neptis nycteus de Nicéville,
1890, from Sikkim, eastern Himalaya, India
Sanjyog Rai 1,5,
Karma Dorjee Bhutia 2,5 & Krushnamegh Kunte3,4,5
1Mickkhola Busti, Namchi, South Sikkim, Sikkim 737126, India
2C/o Rabzang Lama, Sikaritar Rumtek, P.O. Rumtek Dharma Chakra Centre, East
Sikkim, Sikkim 737135, India
3FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, 52 Oxford St., Northwest
Lab Room 458.40-3, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
4National Center for Biological Sciences, GKVK, Bellary
Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560065, India
5Indian Foundation for Butterflies, No. 9, Sneha Nagar,
Amruthahalli Main Road, Byatarayanapura, Bengaluru, India.
Email:1 sanjyogvet@gmail.com, 2 kdgyatsov19@gmail.com, 3 krushnamegh@ifoundbutterflies.org
(corresponding author), 4 krushnamegh@ncbs.res.in
Date of publication
(online): 26 November 2012
Date of publication
(print): 26 November 2012
ISSN 0974-7907 (online) |
0974-7893 (print)
Editor: George Mathew
Manuscript details:
Ms # o2965
Received 10 October 2011
Final received 14 October
2012
Finally accepted 24
October 2012
Citation: Rai, S., K.D. Bhutia & K. Kunte (2012). Recent
sightings of two very rare butterflies, Lethe margaritae Elwes,
1882 and Neptis nycteus de Nicéville, 1890, from Sikkim, eastern
Himalaya, India . Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(14):
3319–3326.
Copyright: © Sanjyog Rai, Karma Dorjee Bhutia & Krushnamegh
Kunte 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows
unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes,
reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and
the source of publication.
Acknowledgements: We thank Vijay
Barve and Gaurav Agavekar for coordinating our initial communication that
resulted in this paper, and Ganesh Mani Pradhan and Chandan Jyoti Gogoi for
supplying updated information about the historical localities mentioned in this
paper. Motoki Saito provided details of the recent sighting of L. margaritaefrom Myanmar. We are grateful to S.T. Lachungpa (IFS, PCCF-cum-Secretary,
Forests), N.T. Bhutia (IFS, PCCF-cum-CWLW) and Usha Lachungpa (Principal
Research Officer, Wildlife) of the Department of Forest, Environment &
Wildlife Management, Government of Sikkim, for their continued support in
documenting and monitoring butterfly diversity in Sikkim. The specimen depicted
in Image 2 C-D is from the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University;
thanks to Naomi Pierce for permission to photograph this specimen and to Rod
Eastwood for his assistance in locating and photographing it. This work is part
of an ongoing project to survey rare, endemic and legally protected butterflies
in Sikkim Himalaya, which is partly funded by the Ashoka Trust for Research in
Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) through an ATREE Small Grant For Research
In Northeast India. This is Publication No. 4 of the Indian Foundation for
Butterflies.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:23608402-76F9-477C-A6F0-C3E33027B253
Abstract: Lethe margaritaeElwes, 1882 andNeptis nycteus de Nicéville, 1890 are very rare butterflies that are
endemic to the Himalaya, and are legally protected in India. However, they have not been recorded in
India in nearly 100 years. Here we
review the available published information on their type localities,
distribution and other natural history, and then report two recent sightings
from Sikkim, northeastern India. Our sightings constitute rediscoveries of the Indian populations of
these species.
Keywords: Endemism, faunal inventory,
Lepidoptera, Limenitidinae, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae, species rediscovery,
type localities, Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
The
eastern Himalaya host a significant proportion of India’s butterfly diversity,
where many species are endemic; some of them are very rare, and some are
legally protected in India under the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
(Anonymous 1997; Gupta & Mondal 2005). However, little natural history and ecological information exists on
most of these species, and we know virtually nothing about their current status
and distribution. Some of these
species have either not been seen in India or not reported in the literature in
decades. The lack of recent information
on their habitats, exact elevational distributions and spot records, flight periods,
early stages and larval host plants is hampering their conservation.
The
renewed interest in the biology and conservation of Indian butterflies is
slowly ameliorating this situation. Two species: Symbrenthia silana and Papilio elephenor,
which had not been reported in nearly 100 years but protected under Schedule I
of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, were recently rediscovered from
Sikkim and western Assam, respectively (Choudhury 2010; Kunte 2010). Current distributions of many other Schedule
I and Schedule II species are being delineated and their populations assessed
with recent sightings and quantitative data from various parts of the eastern
Himalaya and northeastern India (Kunte et al. 2012).
In
this paper, we report the sightings of two Schedule I species: Lethe
margaritae andNeptis nycteus, from Chungthang and Rabum
in the north Sikkim District of the state of Sikkim in northeastern India. We will first review published historical
records and other information on their distributions, including their type
localities because political boundaries have shifted around the type localities
from the time of species descriptions. We will then provide exact locality details of our two sightings, which
appear to represent the first published records of these species from India in
nearly 100 years.
Lethe margaritae Elwes, 1882 - Bhutan
Treebrown
Review of historical records, and distributional range of the
species: Lethe
margaritae Elwes, 1882 (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae: Satyrini), also known as
the Bhutan Treebrown, was described from a single male (Elwes 1882). The female was subsequently described
based on specimens supplied by de Nicéville and Elwes (Moore 1890–1892). The exact type locality of L.
margaritae is unknown. Elwes
(1882) provided the following details: “… I made arrangements with a native
plant-collector, a Sikkim Bhotea, who had accompanied me on two expeditions
into the interior, to visit the Chumbi Valley, on the Tibetan frontier of
Sikkim, to collect seeds and insects. This he did during the months of August
and September last. Though I cannot
be certain of the exact localities in which they were taken, I have little
doubt, from my knowledge of the country and the plants which came with them,
that a considerable portion of them were taken on the Tibetan side of the
frontier. On two occasions I have
looked down into this valley from passes 15,000–16,000 feet high on the
Chola range, which bounds Sikkim on the north-east; and, judging from what I
saw and from the information we have obtained through native sources, it is a
valley of somewhat different climate and vegetation from the Sikkim Valley,
though the Machu River, which drains it, flows southwards through Bhotan to the
Bay of Bengal. It is said to be much
drier in summer and colder in winter than Sikkim valleys of similar elevation
…”. Thus, although the title of
Elwes’s article was “On a collection of butterflies from Sikkim”, the type
locality of this species has subsequently been assumed to be somewhere in
Bhutan (Moore 1890–1892; Bingham 1905; Talbot 1947).
This
species has been reported or collected very rarely since the species was
described. An unspecified number of
specimens of both sexes was collected near Buxa, in Bhutan (Elwes & Möller
1888; Moore 1890–1892). The
species was subsequently reported from “Ta Shian Liang (5,000 ft), July 29”
based on a single male (South 1913). This locality is believed to be in the Mishmi Hills (Talbot 1947; Gupta
& Mondal 2005) in central to eastern Arunachal Pradesh, but we have been
unable to confirm whether this is the case and find out anything about it. It could prove to be in southeastern
Tibet on the border with Arunachal Pradesh. A female specimen, currently in the
Natural History Museum (London), was collected from “Darjeeling-Tukvar”
(d’Abrera 1985), although we do not know the date of collection of this
specimen. Tukvar is near Darjeeling
Town, Darjeeling District, West Bengal, at an elevation of ca 1,200–1,500m.
Finally, the latest record of the species was a male collected on 22 July 2000
near the Tonwang-Dabudam Village in the Kachin State of Myanmar, in dense
evergreen forest (Shizuya et al. 2005).
As
far as we know, the above few reports comprise the entire original historical
record for this species. Several
major books merely list the species from Bhutan, without any new information
about the species or details of any new specimens (Marshall & de Nicéville
1882; Bingham 1905; Antram 1924; Talbot 1947; Wynter-Blyth 1957). Therefore, we assume that these records
were largely taken from published literature. The National Zoological Collection of
the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in Kolkata has three specimens of
unspecified sex from Bhutan (Gupta & Mondal 2005), although these specimens
were part of the pre-independence British collection that ZSI inherited. We do not know in what condition the ZSI
specimens are because Gupta and Mondal copied photographs from d’Abrera
(d’Abrera 1985) instead of using pictures of the ZSI specimens. The Museum of Comparative Zoology at
Harvard University does not have any specimens. The species has not been reported from
Nepal (Smith 1989, 2006).
Based
on available evidence, the species is known to occur only in four specific
localities: Buxa in Bhutan, Tukvar in Darjeeling District of West Bengal, Ta
Shian Liang, which is presumably in the Mishmi Hills of Arunachal Pradesh, and
Tonwang-Dabudam area in Kachin, Myanmar. Of these, the West Bengal record had not been recognized as such, so
this review adds the state of West Bengal to the known range of this
species. We also note that the
Kachin record has extended the range of the species eastward by approximately
200km to Myanmar, and that was a rediscovery of the species. Despite the mention of this species from
Sikkim (see below), there are no historical records from the state of Sikkim as
currently politically recognized. Within a few years of describing this species, Elwes included it in his
checklist of Sikkim butterflies but wrote: “I am as yet uncertain whether this
beautiful species occurs in Sikkim or not, as my first specimen was brought by
native collectors from some place to the eastward of the Tista River; but Mr.
Knyvett’s collectors have lately taken others of both sexes near Buxa, in
Bhotan, and I have no doubt it occurs near to, if not within, British Bhotan …”
(Elwes & Möller 1888). In his
subsequent checklist of butterflies, de Nicéville also listed the species for
Sikkim but noted, “A rare species obtained by the native collectors only near Buxa,
Bhutan” (de Nicéville 1894). Later,
the distribution was mentioned as “SIKKIM to BHUTAN, and in the MISHMI HILLS”
(Talbot 1947), “Bhutan, Sikkim” (d’Abrera 1985), and “India: Sikkim; Arunachal
Pradesh (Mishmi Hills). Elsewhere: Bhutan.” (Gupta & Mondal 2005). The species was recently listed for
Sikkim, but without any details (Haribal 1992). Evidently, all the subsequent
Sikkim mentions were taken from the Elwes-de Nicéville butterfly checklists for
Sikkim, in which they had clearly stated that the species did not occur in
Sikkim but listed it there, anyway. We must conclude that the species had never actually been collected from
Sikkim.
Elevational range and flight
period
The
only specific elevation from which this species has so far been reported is
“5,000 ft” (South 1913). The elevational range given by Talbot, “from about
5,000 to 16,000 ft” (Talbot 1947), is apparently based on a misunderstanding of
Elwes’s description. As mentioned above, the only prior mention of “16,000
feet” was by Elwes when he described what he had seen from the mountain pass
into the lower valley from which the male type specimen may have been
collected, “On two occasions I have looked down into this valley from passes
15,000-16,000 feet high on the Chola range” (Elwes 1882). Thus, based on the single record of
South, the species is expected to occur at mid-elevations around 1,500m. The known flight period is from the end
of July (South 1913; Shizuya et al. 2005) to August or September when the type
specimen was collected (Elwes 1882).
Status
This
species is apparently the largest member of the genus Lethe, with a
wingspan of 85–95mm (de Nicéville 1894; Talbot 1947; d’Abrera 1985). It
has been reported to be very rare, especially the female (Antram 1924; Evans
1932; Talbot 1947; Wynter-Blyth 1957). The species is legally protected in
India under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (Anonymous
1997), and listed as endangered according to Gupta & Mondal (2005). Its early stages and larval host plants
are unknown.
Our new record
SR
sighted L. margaritae at Chungthang (approx. 27036’N & 88038’E),
a small town in the North Sikkim District. Chungthang, at an altitude of 1,700m, is at the confluence of Lachen and
Lachung rivers, which are then recognized as Teesta River downstream of the
confluence. The area was originally
covered with mid-elevation mixed forests, but now forests are restricted to
very small fragments mostly on steep slopes. A large dam is currently being
constructed as part of a hydroelectric project near Chungthang, which will
further decimate forests in this area.
Lethe margaritae was sighted in the town on the cool, rainy late evening (19:25
hr) of 26 July 2011. It was resting on
a leaf of an ornamental Geranium plant outside a house. On being disturbed, it flew through an
open window into one of the rooms inside the house. There it perched right next to an
electric lamp that had previously been turned on, its proboscis slowly curling
and uncurling, and wings partly spread. After taking a few pictures, SR released the butterfly outside the
house, and it was not seen again.
SR’s
photographs (Image 1) agreed very well with the previously published
illustrations and photographs of male L. margaritae (Elwes 1882; Moore
1890-1892; d’Abrera 1985). The
specimen exactly matched the identification key and other descriptions of
Indian Lethe, mainly: (a) it was exceptionally large for a Lethe,
(b) it had a narrow yellow discal band on upper forewing, and (c) on the under
hindwing, it had a very prominent pale band passing through the end of cell but
had no discal band (Evans 1932; Talbot 1947). The elevation (1,700m) at which
SR sighted this specimen and the date (26 July) on which it was seen are
similar to the previously known elevational range (1,500m) and the flight
period (end of July to August or September) of the species (Elwes 1882; South
1913).
Neptis nycteus nycteus de Nicéville, 1890 - Hockeystick
Sailer
Review of historical records, and distributional range of the
species: Neptis
nycteus de Nicéville, 1890 (Nymphalidae: Limenitidinae: Neptini), or the
Hockeystick Sailer, was described from three specimens: “The type male specimen
in Mr. G.C. Dudgeon’s collection was taken in June; the type female in my own
collection was taken in July; and a second female specimen in Mr. A.V.
Knyvett’s collection—were all taken at Tongloo on the Singalelah range at
an elevation of about 12,000 feet” (de Nicéville 1890). de Nicéville mentioned
the “HABITAT” of his new species as “Sikkim”, so the type locality (or
‘habitat’) has subsequently been given as Sikkim (Moore 1899–1900; Eliot
1969). This needs a comment and a
change. It is clear from de Nicéville’s description that the type specimens
were collected from Tonglu (=Tongloo; approx. 27002’N & 88004’E
according to Google Earth), which is one of the highest points on the Singalila
Range (or Ridge). Tonglu is at an
elevation of 3,046m, which is 9,993ft and not 12,000ft as mentioned in the
original species description. Tonglu and the Singalila Range are in the Darjeeling District, which was
loosely included in “Sikkim” at the time of the species description, but it now
belongs to the state of West Bengal. Since political boundaries have shifted in this area and appear quite
stable at present, the type locality of N. nycteus should now be given
as: Tonglu, Singalila Range, Darjeeling District, West Bengal. It is flanked by
Sikkim (as currently politically recognized) to the north and Nepal to the
west.
Very
few records of this species have been published before or since the species
description. Elwes “took a single
fresh male, … in the forest near the Rangbi jhora, on the road to Serail, at
6000 ft., on June 7th” (Elwes & Möller 1888). Rangbi has a small forest river, and it
is also close to Senchal. Serail is a small settlement situated 8km west of
Mungpoo, which is 35km southeast of Darjeeling in West Bengal. However, N.
nycteus had not been described at the time of his paper, so Elwes had
assigned his specimen to Neptis manasa Moore, 1857. de Nicéville wrote of Elwes’s record
under Neptis nycteus in his own checklist of Sikkim butterflies: “This
is No. 131, Neptis manasa, Moore, of Mr. Elwes’ list”, further
mentioning that the species was “Found by Mr. Dudgeon at 7,000 feet in Daling.”
(de Nicéville 1894). Dudgeon’s specimen (sex unknown) from Daling should be
different from the male type from Tonglu used by de Nicéville (1890). Daling,
also variously known as Dalingkote or Dalimkote, was a historic fort that is
now under the Kalimpong subdivision of the Darjeeling District, West Bengal.
There was a male in Swinhoe’s collection, “taken by a native collector at
“Lachin Lachoong, 8000 to 16,000 feet elevation”” (Moore 1899–1900).
Lachen and Lachung are in the North Sikkim District of modern Sikkim (see
below). Bingham did not report any new specimens (Bingham 1905). Eliot mentioned distribution of this
species from Bhutan (Eliot 1969), so the Natural History Museum (London)
appears to have specimen(s) taken from that country, although we do not know
the details of these specimens. Since 1969, the species has been reported as
“Very Rare” from Manang and Kathmandu in central Nepal, which has extended the
species range northwestward by approximately 300km (Smith 1989). There are three specimens in the
collection of the ZSI Kolkata (Gupta & Mondal 2005), although we suspect
that these were among the specimens listed by de Nicéville in previous
literature (de Nicéville 1890, 1894) (de Nicéville was curator at the Indian
Museum, where many of his specimens were and still are deposited, and which is
now part of the ZSI Kolkata). As
far as we know, this is the complete compilation of all the published records
for this species.
The
species range has so far been variously given as only in Sikkim (Moore
1899–1900; Evans 1932), or Sikkim and Bhutan (Eliot 1969; d’Abrera 1985),
or central Nepal to Sikkim and Bhutan (Smith 1989, 2006). From the above discussion regarding the
type locality, northern West Bengal should now be included in the range of the
species, from where most Indian examples appear to have been taken. On the other hand, only one historical
record, that of the male from Lachen/Lachung in Swinhoe’s collection (Moore 1899–1900),
can be attributed to the modern state of Sikkim. The species was mentioned for Sikkim but
without any information in two important books (Wynter-Blyth 1957; Haribal
1992), so we assume that this was based on historical records summarized above
and not on any new records. A
subspecies, Neptis nycteus menpae Huang, 1998, has recently been
described from Hamni, Metok, southeastern Tibet (Huang 1998), which is
approximately 700km northeast of the range of the nominotypical subspecies.
Evans (1932) mentioned another subspecies, phesimensis Tytler, 1915,
from the Naga Hills, but this taxon is now treated as a subspecies under Neptis
nemorum Oberthür, 1906 based on the similarities of the male genitalia with
that species (Eliot 1969).
Elevational range and flight
period
The
elevational range of this species is given as 1,767m to 4,875m (Moore
1899–1900; Smith 1989; Gupta & Mondal 2005). The higher end of this
range (4,875m) is based on the male taken at Lachen/Lachung at “8000 to 16,000
feet elevation” (Moore 1899–1900). The Lachen and Lachung areas in the North Sikkim District indeed cover
this elevation range, but here the tree line is well below 4,800m, so the
“16,000 feet” elevation must be wrong. We must conclude that this specimen was
collected at a lower elevation in the range of 2,400–3,500 m near Lachen
or Lachung, where a suitable habitat for this Neptis exists. The elevational range of this species
can therefore be determined to be approximately 1,800 to 3,500 m. Thus, this is a mid- to high-elevation
species, and it appears to have a single brood per year. The flight period has been reported to
be June–July in the Singalila Range (de Nicéville 1890), and
May–June in Manang and Kathmandu in central Nepal (Smith 1989).
Status
The
species has been reported as very rare (Evans 1932; Wynter-Blyth 1957; Smith
1989). It is legally protected in
India under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (Anonymous 1997),
and listed as critically endangered by Gupta & Mondal (2005). Its early stages and larval host plants
are unknown.
Our new records
KDB
sighted N. nycteus nycteus twice at Rabum (approx. 27044’N
& 88032’E), a small village about 18km. from the town of Lachen
in the North Sikkim District. This
was at an altitude of 2,990m, and on the road leading to the Gurudongmar
Lake. The region is mountainous and
rugged, with some high-elevation stunted forests, small human settlements and
sparsely dispersed agricultural and pastoral fields.
The
first sighting was made on 21 June 2011 at 09:23hr, when the
butterfly was feeding from fresh cow dung on the road while slowly opening and
closing its wings. The second
sighting, which may or may not be of the same individual, was made two days
later, on 23 June 2011 at 11:54hr, around the same location (Image
2A–B). This time the
butterfly was perched on a small Urtica shrub. It had rained the previous night, and
the weather was gloomy when KDB spotted the butterfly. The butterfly basked in the occasional
mild sunshine with its wings spread flat. It tolerated human presence, but it
would fly off and settle on a nearby weed when approached too closely. The sex of the specimen(s) that KDB
photographed is unknown.
We
would also like to take this opportunity to report another spot record from
Gangtok, the state capital of Sikkim. This is based on the sole specimen of
this species in the butterfly collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology,
Harvard University, USA (Image 2C–D). The four labels currently attached
to this specimen read: (1) “Gangtok Sikkim Himalaya mont. 3500 m Juni”, (2) “A
G Weeks Collection”, (3) “477” and (4) “Shemis v. nycteis”. The collection date of this specimen is
unknown, but assumed to be from the late 1800s to very early 1900s, when most
of the specimens from the A.G. Weeks collection were presumably acquired (Rod
Eastwood, personal communication).
The
photographed individuals (Image 2) agree well with the previously published
illustrations and photographs of several specimens of this species (Moore
1899–1900; d’Abrera 1985; Smith 1989; Gupta & Mondal 2005; Smith
2006). They also closely follow the
identification keys and other descriptions of Indian Neptis, mainly: (a)
the upper forewing discal spot in three joins cell streak, forming a hockey
stick-like curved marking, (b) this spot does not fill the base of 3, (c) all
the markings are white, (d) the underside is rich ochre brown, and (e) under
hindwing basal area, especially the cell, has white markings (Evans 1932; Eliot
1969).
Conclusions
Our
sighting of Lethe margaritae appears to be the first one reported since
1913 in India, therefore it constitutes a rediscovery of the species in the
country. As far as we know, it is
only the second record of the species in the past 100 years throughout its range,
following the recent sighting in Kachin, Myanmar, in July 2000. It also confirms the distribution of the
species in Sikkim. Neptis nycteus has recently been recorded from
central Nepal (Smith 1989, 2006) and it occurs in Bhutan (Eliot 1969), but our
sightings appear to be the first ones to be reported from India in several
decades. These spot records
indicate localities, elevations and habitat types where more intensive
surveying and monitoring efforts are needed with the hope of accumulating
further sightings of these very rare and endemic butterflies (Image 3).
All
the available information on the occurrence of these two species, reviewed
above, along with our new records, may be briefly summarized as follows:
1.Lethe margaritae: This species was described from a male specimen
collected most likely somewhere in Bhutan. Only five specific localities are
now known for this species: Tukvar (Darjeeling District, West Bengal),
Chungthang (North Sikkim District, Sikkim), Buxa (Bhutan), Ta Shian Liang
(presumably in the Mishmi Hills, Arunachal Pradesh), and Tonwang-Dabudam
(Kachin State, Myanmar). The species is thus narrowly endemic to the approx.
1,000 km-long strip of mid-elevation evergreen forest in the eastern Himalaya,
from Darjeeling to Kachin. It occurs at 1,500–1,700 m from the end of
July up to September, and appears to be univoltine. It is one of the rarest
eastern Himalayan butterflies, and it is legally protected in India under
Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
2.Neptis nycteus: This species was described from Tongu in the Singalila
Range, Darjeeling District, West Bengal. The nominotypical subspecies has subsequently been reported from Manang
and Kathmandu (Kathmandu District, central Nepal), Rangbi jhora near Sarail and
Daling (Darjeeling District, West Bengal), Gangtok (East Sikkim District),
Rabung and Lachen/Lachung (North Sikkim District), and Bhutan. The nominotypical subspecies thus occurs
from central Nepal to Bhutan. SubspeciesNeptis nycteus menpae Huang, 1998 has so far been reported only from
Hamni, Metok, SE Tibet. The species
on the whole is thus endemic to a strip of approx. 1,000km in the central and
eastern Himalaya. The elevational
range of the species is 1,800–3,500 m. It is univoltine, and flies from May to
July. It is a very rare species
that is legally protected in India under Schedule I of the Wildlife
(Protection) Act, 1972.
Additional
pictures of these two species are available online at:
http://ifoundbutterflies.org/441-lethe/lethe-margaritae
http://ifoundbutterflies.org/153-neptis/neptis-nycteus
Additional
information and pictures will be made available on the above pages as they
accumulate with further sightings in Sikkim and elsewhere in India.
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