Rediscovery of
Small Salmon Arab Colotis amata Fabricius (Lepidoptera:Pieridae) from saline and semi-saline areas of West
Bengal, India
Soumyajit Chowdhury 1 & Rahi Soren 2
1 School of Oceanographic Studies, JadavpurUniversity, Kolkata, West Bengal 700032, India
2 Dept. of Zoology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal
700019, India
Email: wildlifesc@gmail.com 1
Date of online publication 26
June 2009
ISSN 0974-7907 (online) |
0974-7893 (print)
Editor: Peter Smetacek
Manuscript details:
Ms # o2127
Received 28 January 2009
Final received 29 April 2009
Finally accepted 04 June 2009
Citation: Chowdhury, S. & R. Soren(2009). Rediscovery of Small Salmon Arab Colotis amata Fabricius(Lepidoptera: Pieridae) from saline and semi-saline
areas of West Bengal, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa1(6): 351-352.
Copyright: © Soumyajit Chowdhury & Rahi Soren 2009. Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTTallows 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 Mr. Bulganin Mitraand Dr. Kumar Ghorpade for valuable suggestions. Dr. Ghorpade, Judhajit Dasgupta and Ayan Ghose provided information base.
The Small Salmon
Arab, Colotis amata(Fabricius 1775), is a widely distributed butterfly,
recorded from Africa and Asia. In South Asia, it occurs in India, Pakistan and
Sri Lanka. In India, the species has been reported from all parts, except the
Northeast (Wynter-Blyth 1957). The larval host plants are Salvadora oleoides,S. persica and Azima tetracantha (Salvadoraceae)
(Wynter-Blyth 1957). In this article we report the occurrence of Colotis amata (Fabricius 1775)
after 70 years in the saline areas of West Bengal.
Observations
The species was
observed in thorny scrub jungles in three different parts of coastal West
Bengal during the post-monsoon months (October-December, 2008).
The first recordwas on 26
October in the coastal areas of Sagar Island (21063’N
& 88008’E) in the Sundarbans region of
South 24 Parganas district. A single male individual was first observed
flying low over hedgesalong a roadside. Later it settled on a
sunny patch of ground with wings open.
On 29 November,
another specimen was recorded from a coastal scrub jungle in Haldia (22003’N & 88005’E), an
industrial township in East Midnapur district. Here a
few of them were dispersed. Males
preferred sunny areas, while a couple of females were feeding on flowers. The third observation was on 7 December in Piyali (22039’N & 88048’E), an
inland saline area, close to Canning in South 24 Parganasdistrict, which is cultivated area, with
a few scattered patches of thorny scrub. While feeding, the females open their wings slowly and close them in a
few seconds. Males, as observed on
previous days, frequently settled on the ground with their wings open,
particularly in sunlit patches. Both males and
females are weak flyers and fly close to the ground.
.
Discussion
Bingham (1907) described C. amata, along with its larval host plants and
distribution. He pointed out the absence of this species from the Bengal
Presidency. Although Evans (1932) did
not specify its occurrence in Bengal, Talbot (1939) reported it from
Bengal. However, no specific locality in
Bengal was mentioned. Sanders (1944-45) recorded that it “Presumably occurs”
but he has not taken it near Calcutta. Ghosh and Chaudhury (1997) did
not record C. amata during their faunistic surveys of West Bengal. However, they reported the species as a part
of the review from literature. C. amata has been recorded only from the coastal (Sagar Island and Haldia) and
inland saline (Piyali) areas of West Bengal so
far. The present finding confirms the occurrence of the species
in the eastern part of the Indian sub-region as well. Although the species has been reported to be
‘common’ in the Indian sub-region (Wynter-Blyth 1957;Kehimkar 2008), we found it to be locally rare in the
saline and semi-saline areas of West Bengal.
Conclusion
Further studies
will throw more light on the distribution pattern, host preference, seasonal
variations and the impact of agriculture (as in Piyali)
or urbanisation (as in SagarIsland and Haldia) on C. amata.
References
Bingham,
C.T. (1907). Fauna
of British India,including Ceylon and Burma. - Butterflies Vol I. Taylor and Francis, London, xxii + 511pp.
Dasgupta, J. (2006). Paschimbanglar Projapoti (in Bengali). AnandaPublishers, Kolkata, 235pp.
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W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd Edition). Bombay Natural
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S.K. & M. Chaudhury (1997). Insecta: Lepidoptera : Pieridae, pp.
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