Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 January 2019 | 11(1): 13173–13174

Additional record of the poorly known Argus Paralasa nepalica (Paulus, 1983) (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) in Nepal

Sanej Prasad Suwal ¹, Krishna Dev Hengaju ² & Naresh Kusi ³

¹ Khwopa College, Department of Environmental Science, Bhaktapur, 44800, Nepal.

² IUCN Nepal, Kupondole Rd 162, Lalitpur, 44700, Nepal.

² Amrit Science Campus, Department of Environmental Science, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, 44600, Nepal

³ Resources Himalaya Foundation, Naya Bato, Sanepa, Lalitpur, 44700, Nepal.

¹ sanej100@gmail.com (corresponding author), ² krishd.hju@gmail.com, ³ naresh.kusi@gmail.com

doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3814.11.1.13173-13174 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:24FBBFFD-AAA5-41FE-BCF2-2838908A2208

Editor: Monsoon Jyoti Gogoi, Assam University, Silchar, India. Date of publication: 26 January 2019 (online & print)

Manuscript details: # 3814 | Received 25 November 2017 | Final received 25 December 2018 | Finally accepted 05 January 2019

Citation: Suwal, S.P., K.D. Hengaju & N. Kusi (2019). Additional record of the poorly known Argus Paralasa nepalica (Paulus, 1983) (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) in Nepal. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(1): 13173–13174; https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3814.11.1.13173-13174

Copyright: Suwal et al. 2019. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

Funding: Rufford Foundation, UK.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, and Department of Forests and Soil Conservation, Kathmandu, and District Forest Office, Humla, for granting research permission. We thank Prof. Dr. Bhaiya Khanal and Mr. Mahendra Singh Limbu for the species identification and information. Our sincere gratitude goes to the Rufford Foundation, UK for providing financial support towards the Wild Yak research during which this record was obtained. Our sincere thanks to Mr. Pema Rikzin Lama, Funjo Tamang, and Yangkep Lama for supporting the team in field.

The genus Paralasa (Moore, 1891) belongs to the family Nymphalidae which is also linked to the genus Callerebia. The recent molecular phylogeny support Miller (1968) who proposed the placement of Paralasa within the Callerebia series of Ypthimina (Peña et al. 2006), however, the life history and karyotype study by Sauracov & Emmel (2008) showed no new evidence supporting its affinity with Ypthimina. It is usually distributed in the higher mountains of central Asia (NW-Himalaya, Szechwan, East Tibet, Karakorum, Pamir, Tien Shan, Hindukush (Vis & Coene 1987).

This genus is easily identifiable by the presence of a distinct row of 5–7 white points on the underside of the hindwing in the female and reduced white in the male. The underside of females is bicolor since forewing apex and the whole hindwing are covered with a dense layer of whitish-grey scales. The apex of the forewing is sharpened, the eye-spot is round with a single white pupil (Churkin & Tuzov 1998). The female is somewhat bigger than the male.

There are 30 species of Paralasa recorded globally (NHM 2018) and Nepal is home to a single species, Paralasa nepalica. In 1973, Paralasa material was collected from northwestern Nepal by Martens. The material was studied by Paulus (1982), who realized that the species was new and described it as P. nepalica, representing the easternmost species of the genus Paralasa (Vis & Coene 1987). The species is considered endemic to Nepal (Smith 1994).

After the first collection by Martens in 1973 (Vis & Coene 1987), there have been only two additional records till date, one from Chya lekh, Mahakali, northwestern Nepal, at an elevation of 3,740m (Morishita & Innomata 1998) and another above Phoksumdo Village, Dolpa, at 3,500m (Sourakov & Emmel 2008). This is the fourth observation record of this species in Nepal, obtained about 166km north-west from Dolpa and 68.7km north-east from Chya lekh, Darchula, Nepal. Also, no photograph of this species is known to have been taken yet in its natural habitat. The photograph presented here is most likely to be the first for this species in its natural habitat.

We observed the butterfly in Talung Valley (30.203⁰N & 81.700⁰E, 4,400m) of upper Humla, Province - 6, on 27 July 2017 at 1:30hr. The butterfly was basking by the roadside along with two other butterflies—Indian Tortoiseshell Aglais cashmirensis and Lofty Bath White Pontia callidice.

Like most Paralasa species, P. nepalica is mentioned to prefer pine forest belt (Vis & Coene 1987), however, the observation presented in this paper is very different as the habitat is characterized by a wide valley interspersed by big boulders and rocky hills with steep trails that are mostly covered with lichens, grasses, forbs, sedges, and shrubs. The anomaly in the observation calls for further research to better understand the habitat and ecology of the species.

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References

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