Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 December 2016 | 8(14): 9681–9683

 

 

 

 

The sighting of Howarth’s Hairstreak (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Theclinae: Chrysozephyrus disparatus interpositus Howarth, 1957) from Tenga Valley, Arunachal Pradesh, India, extending its known range

Rachit Pratap Singh 1 & Sanjay Sondhi 2

1 1st Cross Road, Padmini PG, Tavarekere Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560029, India

2 Titli Trust, 49 Rajpur Road Enclave, Dhoran Khas, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248001, India
1 rachitsingh98@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 sanjay.sondhi1@gmail.com

 

 

 

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/jott.2722.8.14.9681-9683 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:04FADC27-E5D6-46E6-BA63-E38D1763A3D8

 

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

 

Manuscript details: Ms # 2722 | Received 16 April 2016 | Final received 12 December 2016 | Finally accepted 15 December 2016

 

Citation: Singh, R.P. & S. Sondhi (2016). The sighting of Howarth’s Hairstreak (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Theclinae: Chrysozephyrus disparatus interpositus Howarth, 1957) from Tenga Valley, Arunachal Pradesh, India, extending its known range. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(14): 9681–9683; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/jott.2722.8.14.9681-9683

 

Copyright: © Singh & Sondhi 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: None.

 

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: The first author would like to thank Mr Peter Smetacek for his encouragement throughout, for writing this paper. The authors are very grateful to Saito Motoki san for his invaluable time and effort for help in identification of this species. The first author would also like to acknowledge the support shown by his parents in supporting his interest and for their assistance throughout the time.

 

 

 

The butterflies of western Arunachal Pradesh have not been well studied. The earliest records of butterflies from this region are based on a collection of butterflies by Capt. F.M. Bailey as part of his expedition from eastern to western Arunachal Pradesh in 1913. Evans (1914) reported on Bailey’s butterfly collection. Betts (1950) reported 169 species of butterflies from western Arunachal Pradesh but did not cover Lycaenidae or Hesperiidae. Gupta & Shukla (1998) reported on Lycaenidae from Arunachal Pradesh based on the collection by the Zoological Survey of India between 1964 and 1974. More recently, Athreya (2006) reported on butterflies of this landscape as part of a larger biodiversity assessment. In the last five years, the second author has conducted an assessment of Lepidopteran diversity in the Kameng Protected Area Complex, which includes Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary, Sessa Orchid Wildlife Sanctuary, and Pakke Tiger Reserve, recording 421 species of butterflies (Sondhi & Kunte 2016). Surveys in this highly bio-diverse landscape have resulted in the addition of several butterfly species that are new to India, including Gonepteryx amintha tibetana (Sondhi & Roy 2013), Bhutanitis ludlowi (Dutta et al. 2015), several butterfly rediscoveries and range extensions including Calinaga aborica (Sondhi et al. 2016) and Arhopala rama (Singh 2015).

In this paper, we report the sighting of Chrysozephyrus disparatus interpositus Howarth, 1957 from Tenga Valley in Tenga Reserved Forest bordering Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary.

The first author observed butterflies opportunistically in Tenga Valley, which is part of the Tenga Reserved Forest at the northern edge of the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary and Sessa Orchid Wildlife Sanctuary in western Arunachal Pradesh between 2012 and 2014. The first author recorded and photographed a male Howarth’s Hairstreak Chrysozephyrus disparatus interpositus Howarth, 1957 on 21 and 22 May 2014 at Tseringpam Village, Tenga Valley, Arunachal Pradesh (27011’32.1282”N & 92028’24.1962”E) at an elevation of 1,626m.

The species, Chrysozephyrus (=Neozephyrus) disparatus Howarth, 1957 also commonly known as Howarth’s Hairstreak, belongs to the subfamily Theclinae and tribe Theclini. C. disparatus has six known subspecies globally—disparatus, hainanus, inthanonius, pseudotaiwanus, interpositus and pseudoletha (Savela 2016) http://ftp.funet.fi/index/Tree_of_life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/lycaenidae/theclinae/chrysozephyrus/), of which the last two are known to occur in India. While the subspecies interpositus is known from Sikkim (Howarth 1957; Cantlie 1963) and from the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal (Smith 1994) the subspecies pseudoletha is known from the Khasi Hills, Meghalaya (Howarth 1957; Gasse 2013). This specimen from the Khasi Hills was erroneously identified as C. letha (as Ruralis letha) by Swinhoe (1911) but was listed as a separate subspecies C. disparatus pseudoletha by Howarth (1957) based on the similarity of its genitalia with C. disparatus. While some authors list pseudoletha as a separate species, we have followed Beccaloni et al. (2003) and treat this as a subspecies.

Chrysozephyrus disparatus interpositus was identified using Howarth (1957), Cantlie (1963) and Inayoshi (2016). As we did not have permissions to collect specimens and hence could not examine genitalia, these individuals were identified as C. disparatus using photographs. Based on Howarth (1957), C. disparatus male has a metallic green upperside with a black-brown border of variable width on UPF/H. On UNF/H, it is a drab grey with disco-cellular bars being indistinct on both wings. The fringe on both wings is outwardly white and inwardly black-brown. UNF: the post discal line is narrow, slightly wavy and white, inwardly dark-lined. The sub-marginal band is reduced to two dark spots in the tornal area. The marginal line is white, becoming indistinct above space 2. UNH: post-discal line like UNF, but a little wider. The sub-marginal band is irrorated with bluish-white scales in the form of two lines of crescents, the inner one being more prominent. Black-pupilled, apricot-orange ocellus exist in space 2, not touching the similar coloured tornal patch. Of the two Indian subspecies, pseudoletha has a very narrow black border of 0.5mm on upperside of the forewing, while this individual had a broader >1mm black marginal border, UPF and hence was identified as the subspecies interpositus (Image 1).

The butterfly was seen three times around a particular area along the forest streams in May 2014. The first sighting was on 21 May 2014 at 10am; the second sighting was on 22 May 2014 (Image 1). The same species (and possibly the same individual) was observed for the third time within 30 minutes. The butterfly prefers shaded areas and takes small, swift flights staying 2–3 m above the ground. While perched on leaves, it moves the hindwing to create an illusion of moving antennae using the tail.

The specific locality where the species was sighted was Tseringpam Village in Tenga Valley is situated at 1,626m and covered with thick green sub-tropical forest. The area is rich with variety of seasonal shrubs alongside the stream that flows through the valley, with a gradual fall in altitude. The wet patches along the forest form good mud-puddling grounds. The area is free from human disturbances and agriculture.

In the Indian subcontinent, this subspecies Chrysozephyrus disparatus interpositus is known only from one female and one male specimen collected from Nepal (Smith 1994), and the one male specimen collected by Antram from Sikkim in 1956 housed in the Natural History Museum, London (Howarth 1957; Cantlie 1963). Hence this sighting of Chrysozephyrus disparatus interpositus is only the second record of this subspecies from India since its original description by Howarth (1957). This record also extends the known range of this species eastward by 350km from Sikkim to western Arunachal Pradesh.

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

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