Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2021 | 13(8): 19171–19172

 

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6779.13.8.19171-19172

#6779 | Received 05 October 2020 | Finally accepted 06 July 2021

 

 

A record of Ourapteryx dierli Inoue, 1994 (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Ennominae) from the Garhwal Himalaya, India

 

Arun P. Singh 1 & Lekhendra 2

 

1&2 Entomology Branch, Forest Protection Division, Forest Research Institute, P.O. New Forest, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248006, India.

1 ranoteaps@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 lekhendrasahu750@gmail.com

 

 

 

Editor: Sanjay Sondhi, Titli Trust, Dehradun, India.         Date of publication: 26 July 2021 (online & print)

 

Citation: Singh, A.P. & Lekhendra (2021). A record of Ourapteryx dierli Inoue, 1994 (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Ennominae) from the Garhwal Himalaya, India.  Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(8): 19171–19172. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6779.13.8.19171-19172

 

Copyright: © Singh & Lekhendra 2021. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.  JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

 

Funding: None.

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

 

Ourapteryx dierli Inoue, 1994 was described from central Nepal (Inoue 1994) with specimens collected during June (holotype and paratypes of this species were collected on various dates in vi.1973) between 2,500–2,600 m from central Nepal (Inoue 1994, 1995).  Later, O. dierli was recorded from western Nepal at 1,000 m on 25.vii.1996 (Stüning 2000). Recently, Sondhi et al. (2020) reported it from Sarmoli village (23.v.2019; 2,200 m; 30.079oN &  80.235oE) near Munsiari in Pithoragarh district of Kumaon in Uttarakhand, India.  Hence the known distribution range of O. dierli was noted as eastern Kumaon in Uttarakhand, India to western and central Nepal (Sondhi et al. 2020).

During the course of surveys carried out on insects infesting the western Himalayan oaks, the authors recorded one individual of this species (Figure 1) in the Chakrata hills. The individual was attracted to a CFL light on 08.vi.2020 at Kanesar Range Chowki (2,238 m; 30.714oN & 77.859oE; 20:31h;  Temp: 17.8oC;  RH 77%),  Chakrata Forest Division, Dehradun District of Uttarakhand, India. The forest habitat around the site is 12/C1a Ban oak forest (Champion & Seth 1968) with Quercus leucotrichophora being the dominant tree species along with associates like Deodar Cedrus deodara, Moru Oak Q. floribunda, Horse Chestnut Aesculus indica, Blue Pine Pinus wallichiana, Alder Alnus nepalensis, Rhododendron arboretum, Bhamora Cornus capiatata, Pyrus pashia, and Dwarf Bamboo Arundinaria falcata. The earlier record from Uttarakhand by Sondhi et al. (2020) of this species was also in a similar forest habitat, altitude and season (pre-monsoon), which suggests the preference by this species for habitat, altitude, and season.

This finding further extends the western most limit in the distribution range of this species in the Himalaya to the Chakrata hills of Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India. This site of record lies in the Jaunsar region near the state of Himachal Pradesh  to its west, and  is ~250 km from the nearest known earlier record from Munsiari in Kumaon, India.

 

For image - - click here

 

 

References

 

Champion, H.G. & S.K. Seth (1968). A Revised Forest Types of India. Manager of Publications, Government of India, Delhi.

Inoue, H. (1994). Descripton of a new species of Ourapteryx Leach (Geometridae: Ennominae) from central Nepal. Tinea 14(1): 10–12.

Inoue, H. (1995). The genera Abraxas and Ourapteryx from Nepal (Geometridae, Ennominae), pp. 119–139. In: Haruta, T. (ed.). (1995). Moths of Nepal. Part 4. TINEA. Vol. 14 (Supplement 2). The Japan Heterocerists’ Society, Tokyo, 206pp+32pls.

Sondhi, S., D.N. Basu & K. Kunte (2020). First record of Ourapteryx dierli Inoue, 1994 (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Ennominae) from India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(13): 16916–16919. https://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5524.12.13.16916-16919

Stüning, D. (1994). On the identity of Ourapteryx ebuleata Guenee, 1857, O. multstrigaria Walker, 1866, and O. caschmirensis Bastelberger, 1911, with description of two new species (Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Ennominae). Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo (NF) 15: 109–134.