Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2024 | 16(3): 25013–25015

 

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

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8715.16.3.25013-25015

#8715 | Received 02 September 2023 | Final received 02 March 2024 | Finally accepted 15 March 2024

 

 

Sighting of Large Branded Swift Pelopidas sinensis (Mabille, 1877) (Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae) in Delhi, India

 

Rajesh Chaudhary 1  & Sohail Madan 2

 

1 Department of Biomedical Science, Acharya Narendra Dev College, Govindpuri, Kalkaji, New Delhi 110019, India.

2 H-62, D Saket, New Delhi 110017, India.

1 rajeshchaudhary@andc.du.ac.in (corresponding author), 2 madan.sohail97@gmail.com

 

 

 

Editor: Mahamad Sayab Miya, Western Kentucky University, Kentucky, USA.      Date of publication: 26 March 2024 (online & print)

 

Citation: Chaudhary, R. & S. Madan (2024). Sighting of Large Branded Swift Pelopidas sinensis (Mabille, 1877) (Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae) in Delhi, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 16(3): 25013–25015. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8715.16.3.25013-25015

  

Copyright: © Chaudhary & Madan 2024. 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.

 

Acknowledgements: The authors thank Mr. Rohit Aggarwal for giving an opportunity to survey his farm compound. The authors acknowledge Mr. Salil Dutta of Asian Adventures for his help and support during the survey and Parul Daga for giving inputs on plants being grown in the farm compound.

 

 

 

 

The butterfly, Large Branded Swift Pelopidas sinensis, was first described by Mabille in 1877 from China (Mabille 1877). It is distributed in China and several southeastern Asian and southern Asian countries including India (Devyatkin 2012; Huang 2016; Kehimkar 2016; Rehman et al. 2016; Sajan et al. 2022). In India, P. sinensis is found in the Himalaya from Himachal Pradesh to Arunachal and other northeastern states (Moore 1882; Swinhoe 1912–13; Wynter-Blyth 1957; Gogoi 2013; Naro 2014; Varshney & Smetacek 2015; Kehimkar 2016; Sondhi et al. 2018; Irungbam et al. 2020). There are also reports of sightings of this butterfly from Gosekhurd Reservoir near Nagpur in Peninsular India (Patil et al. 2019), Lalwan Community Reserve, and Ranjit Sagar Conservation Reserve, Punjab (Singh et al. 2021). The Lalwan Community Reserve is located in the hilly terrains of the Himalaya at the border of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, whereas and Ranjit Sagar Conservation Reserve is at the border of Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab. However, both the records of P. sinensis (i.e., from Nagpur and Punjab) cannot be confirmed due to the absence of pictorial evidence or unclear representative images provided in the published articles (Patil et al. 2019; Singh et al. 2021). In India, the status of P. sinensis has been reported as common by Van Gasse (Van Gasse 2021) and Sondhi (Sondhi et al. 2018), and uncommon by Kehimkar (Kehimkar2016). This species has not been reported from arid and semi-arid areas of northwestern India. The present communication reported the sighting of P. sinensis from Delhi–a state with a semi-arid climate. Hence, this is the first report of this species from the semi-arid areas of northwestern India, and it is probably a range extension of this species.

Three male hesperid butterflies were spotted roosting on foliage in a private farm compound (28.5444444N, 77.0047222E) on 30 July 2023, at 1700–1800 h, in Najafgarh, southwestern Delhi. The weather was humid, the temperature was about 33–34°C, and the sky was clear. The butterflies were photographed, and the species was identified as P. sinensis by referring to the literature (Moore 1882; Evans 1932; Wynter-Blyth 1957; Kehimkar 2016). The farm compound where the species was sighted is planted with medicinal herbs, grasses, ornamental plants, and fruit plants. The compound is surrounded by agricultural fields, and there flows a perennial canal with the growth of reeds and aquatic flora (Image 2). About 5–6 km from the site where the butterflies were spotted, exists a large freshwater reservoir––the ‘Najafgarh Lake’. In the rainy season the land near the lake becomes marshy and is used to cultivate paddy (Image 2).

The butterfly P. sinensis has dark olive-brown upperside and paler undersides. Males of P. sinensis can be differentiated from those of other members of the same genus found in Delhi (P. mathias and P. thrax) by larger size, forewings with prominent spots on upperside, narrow yellowish or whitish brand below cell extending from vein1–spot in space 2. The underside of hindwings has prominent spots in space 2–6 and cells, which are usually also noticeable on the upperside of the wings (Moore 1882; Evans 1932; Wynter-Blyth 1957).

The range of distribution of P. sinensis covers the part of the globe that is humid or wet (Peel et al. 2007; Devyatkin 2012; Sayre et al. 2014; Huang 2015; Kehimkar 2016). In India, it is found in the Himalaya up to 2,500 m and in northeastern states (Wynter-Blyth 1957; Kehimkar 2016; Van Gasse 2021), which are relatively more humid or moist than northwestern and western India (Peel et al. 2007; Attri 2010; Kulkarni et al. 2020). Sighting of this butterfly in Delhi, with its semi-arid climate, is therefore unexpected. It is possible that the sighted individuals of P. sinensis are strays or chance migrants from their known range of distribution and settled temporarily in this humid environment. Alternatively, the larva and pupa of this butterfly might have been accidentally transported from other parts of India along with the larval host plants, or the chrysalis that might have been brought accidentally with some object may have emerged as an adult. It will be interesting to search for P. sinensis in Delhi and neighbouring areas in the future to elucidate if it has expanded its range to the semi-arid areas of India or is a temporary settler in Delhi. Also, the examination of the genitalia of a series of specimens from Delhi would be useful to support the findings further and elucidate infra-specific variation in wing marking patterns.  

 

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