Diversity of butterflies ( Lepidoptera : Papilionoidea and Hesperoidea ) of Dachigam National Park , Jammu and Kashmir , India

1,2 P.G. Department of Zoology, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India 3 Department of Zoology, Government Degree College, Ganderbal, Jammu & Kashmir 191201, India Present address: 1 Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora, Jammu & Kashmir, India; 2 P.O.BOX No.1250, G.P.O, Residency Road, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir 190001, India 1 draijazphd@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 bhagatrc@yahoo.com, 3 din_ento@yahoo.co.in

Being the main destination for wildlife linked tourism in the Kashmir Valley, Dachigam National Park has attained world-wide fame for its rich faunal and floral wealth.The National Park is situated 18km northeast of Srinagar.It covers an area of 141km 2 and is roughly 22.5km long, 8km wide and an altitude range of 1,700->4,000 m.The National Park is divided into lower and upper Dachigam areas and is enclosed between a fold of the Zanskar range, which forms the northwest branch of the central Himalaya (Fig. 1).At its base lies the Harwan Reservoir and New Theed Village, while the surrounding mountain range is topped by Mahadev Peak.Dachigam is famous for the Kashmir Stag or "Hangul" (Cervus elaphus hanglu).The National Park also acts as a protected home for other floral and faunal elements, viz., Himalayan Brown Bear, Himalayan Black Bear, Musk Deer, Leopard, Hyena, birds (150 species), vascular plants (661 species) etc. (Dar et al. 2002).
No survey or study has so far been undertaken on the butterflies of Dachigam National Park.Earlier workers who have contributed to the knowledge of butterfly fauna of Kashmir Valley like Bingham-(1905Bingham-( , 1907)), Evans (1932), Thomas-Glover (1936), Home (1938), Das et al. (1964), Das & Verma(1965), Talbot (1939Talbot ( , 1947)), Wynter-Blyth (1957) and Jamdar (1992)-have not mentioned any reports of butterflies from Dachigam area.Among them, Home (1938) reported seven species of butterflies from Nishatbagh, a famous tourist spot close to the national park.Also, most of the surveys/studies conducted in the park till date, have been confined to large animals like Hangul, Leopard, Wild Boar and plants (Holloway 1970;Kurt 1978;Inayatullah 1982;Mansoor 1989;Bhat et al. 2009;Charoo et al. 2009;Qureshi et al. 2009;Shah et al. 2009aShah et al. ,b, 2011)).Keeping in view the significance of the national park, the authors made a preliminary survey of its butterfly fauna.
Materials and Methods: The butterflies were surveyed during the period April-June and September-October 2004, May-July and October 2005, June-August 2006 and May-July 2007.Adult butterflies were collected by net and identified in the field and in a few cases were collected.For identification, the works of Evans (1932), Wynter-Blyth (1957), Haribal (1992), Feltwell (2001), Kunte (2006) and Pajni et al. (2006) were followed.For common names of butterflies Wynter-Blyth (1957) and Varshney (1983) were followed.
Observations: In the present field study, 27 species of butterflies distributed in 24 genera and five families were reported (Table 1).The families include Hesperiidae, Papilionidae (one genus, one species each), Lycaenidae (three genera, three species), Pieridae (five genera, seven species) and Nymphalidae (14 genera, 5390 15 species).Nymphalidae was found to be the most dominant followed by Pieridae, Lycaenidae, Hesperiidae and Papilionidae.It was found that the butterflies of all the families except Hesperiidae were mostly active from April to August.However, the family Hesperiidae was active from June to October.Although a total of at least 35 species were seen in the park only 27 were identified, and the rest (which might roughly include three lycaenids, five nymphalids, one papilionid and three pierids) could not be identified.Libythea lepita occurred in the hundreds during the month of April and May 2006.However, such numbers were not observed in other months or years.
Most butterfly species were seen visiting flowers of Tagetes patula (Asteraceae).Two nymphalids namely Junonia orithya (Linnaeus) (Blue Pansy) and Neptis sappho Pallas (Pallas' Sailor) are new records and are reported for the first time from Kashmir Valley.The distribution and abundance of most families except Hesperiidae was during the months of May, June and July.Hesperiidae was abundant during September.Aglais cashmirensis, Vanessa cardui, Colias fieldi, Pieris brassicae and Pontia daplidice were the commonest butterflies throughout the study period.

Conclusion:
The present study is the first effort in exploring the butterfly wealth of Dachigam National Park.The permission and entry process for conducting research needs to be reviewed and simplified.While processing extension/renewal of the permission, a lot of time gets wasted which ultimately affects the outcome of such surveys.