Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2016 | 8(5): 8829–8830

 

 

 

Reporting the occurrence of the Variegated Plushblue Flos adriana (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Theclinae) from Garhwal, Uttarakhand extending its known range

 

Vidya Venkatesh

 

Last Wilderness Foundation, 251-B, Kewal Industrial Estate, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel (W), Mumbai, Maharashtra 400013, India

vidya.nature@gmail.com

 

 

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/jott.2636.8.5.8829-8830 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8ACF0F9D-0DF5-4038-AB23-69C417F029DA

 

Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publication: 26 May 2016 (online & print)

 

Manuscript details: Ms # 2636 | Received 19 March 2016 | Finally accepted 10 May 2016

 

Citation: Venkatesh, V. (2016). Reporting the occurrence of the Variegated Plushblue Flos adriana (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Theclinae) from Garhwal, Uttarakhand extending its known range. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(5): 8829–8830; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/jott.2636.8.5.8829-8830

 

Copyright: © Venkatesh 2016. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International 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: Self funded.

 

Conflict of Interest: The author declares no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgement: Sanjay Sondhi for his guidance; Isaac Kehimkar for sharing his observations.

 

 

The genus Flos Doherty, 1889 is represented by 14 species largely found in the Oriental region (Evans 1957; www.nic.funet.fi/index/Tree_of_life/insecta/lepidoptera).  Of these 14 species, seven species are known from the Indian subregion: adriana, apidanus, asoka, areste, chinensis, diardi and fulgida.  All of these species are known from the eastern Himalaya or the hills of northeastern India (Evans 1957; Wynter-Blyth 1957; Savela  2011).  Of these species, five species are recorded from central Himalaya in Nepal, namely, Flos adriana, F. areste, F. asoka, F. chinensis and F. fulgida (Smith 1994).  Recently, the Spangled Plushblue F. asoka was reported by Singh & Bhandari (2006) from Garhwal and by Smetacek (2011) from Kumaon in Uttarakhand.

 Results and Discussion: On 12 October 2015, I observed and photographed the Variegated Plushblue (Image 1) from the Chaukhamb area of the Lansdowne Forest Division in the Garhwal region in the Pauri Garhwal District, Uttarakhand.  This individual was seen on grass at around 10:15hr, on a hill slope and was identified as F. adriana using published literature (Evans 1932; Evans 1957; Wynter-Blyth 1957; Kehimkar 2008).

 The butterflies of Uttarakhand have been well studied over the last century or so.  William Doherty published a list of 271 species of butterflies recorded primarily from the Kumaon region (Doherty 1886).  Philip W. Mackinnon and Lionel de Nicéville published a series of papers listing 323 species from Mussoorie and surrounds in 1899 (Mackinnon & de Nicéville 1899).  Between 1910 and 1915, Frank Hannyngton, published a series of papers listing 378 species of butterflies from the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand (Hannyngton 1910, 1911, 1915).  O.C. Ollenbach published his records of butterflies from numerous sites he visited in Mussoorie in 1929 (Ollenbach 1930). These publications represent the major works on butterflies from Uttarakhand prior to India’s Independence.  A review of all these publications reveals that there were no pre-independence records of Flos adriana from either Garhwal or Kumaon regions of Uttarakhand.  There are no reports of this species either in more recent publications by Smetacek (2012), Singh & Sondhi (2016), Singh (1999, 2009) and Singh & Bhandari (2003, 2006).

 

 

 

A review of other literature reveals that Evans (1932) mentions the distribution of Flos adriana as “Sikkim-Shan States” while Wynter-Blyth (1957) lists its distributions as “Sikkim to Assam and Shan States”.  Evans (1957), in his review of Arhopala continues to maintain this distribution.  Smith (1994), however, lists records of the species from “East to Central Nepal” thereby extending its known range westwards.  In more recent literature, Kehimkar (2008) lists the known range of this species from “Uttaranchal” without listing any specific information about records or specific sightings, on the basis of his personal record from Corbett (Isaac Kehimkar pers. comm. July 2006).

 van Gasse (2013), however, lists the distribution of this species from Kumaon on the basis on a single record by Sanders (1955).  Sanders (1995) reported the collection of a rather “worn male on a stream bed about 5 miles from Kathgodam along the Nainital road, in Kumaon, in March, 1932”.  Most authors, in subsequent works, have overlooked this record.

An online search for the records of this species reveals photographic evidence by Isaac Kehimkar of this species from Corbett National Park in March 2006 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/26689187@N00/4638143931).  This represents the second record of Flos adriana from the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand after that reported by Sanders (1955).  

The record of Variegated Plushblue F. adriana from Lansdowne, Pauri Garhwal not only confirms the presence of this species from Uttarakhand, but represents the first record from Garhwal, extending its known range in Kumaon, further westward by 250km.

 

 

 

References

 

 

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