Rediscovery of the Empress, Sasakia funebris Leech (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae:Apaturini) after 88 years in India

Arun P. Singh

Ecology & Biodiversity Conservation Division, Rain Forest Research Institute, Jorhat, Assam, India

singhap@icfe.org, ranoteaps@gmail.com

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3428.4514-6 | ZooBank:urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:83EAB156-C27B-486E-A4D1-59D49F9C1342

Editor: Peter Smetacek, Nature research & adventure in the Himalaya, Nainital, India. Date of publication: 26 June 2013 (online & print)

Manuscript details: Ms # o3428 | Received 08 December 2012 | Final received 01 June 2013 | Finally accepted 02 June 2013

Citation: Singh, A.P. (2013). Rediscovery of the Empress, Sasakia funebris Leech (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae: Apaturini) after 88 years in India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 5(10): 4514–4516; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3428.4514-6

Copyright: © Singh 2013. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 UnportedLicense. 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: Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education (ICFRE), Dehradun

Competing Interest: None.

Acknowledgements: The author is thankful to Dr. H.B. Naithani for identification of plants. Thanks are due to DG, ICFRE and Director, RFRI for providing the necessary facilities. Support of the PCCF and Chief Wildlife Warden of Arunachal Pradesh State Forest Department is duly acknowledged.

For images, table -- click here

The Empress, Sasakia funebris(Leech, 1891) is reported to be ‘very rare’ in India (Evans 1932; Wynter-Blyth 1957) and is also listed as a protected species in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (Anonymous 1997). The species is included as ‘Critically Endangered’ in the ‘Red Data Book’ of Indian Butterflies (Gupta & Mondal 2005) but the taxon has not yet been assessed for the IUCN Redlist (IUCN 2012). The habits and ecology of this species in India are not well known. The species is distinct in appearance with the male having the ground colour black. Its forewing cell has a narrow basal red streak above, which is much wider on the underside, and the hindwingunderside has red basal markings. Both wings have the outer halves prominently streaked with dirty white longitudinal V-shaped stripes. The female is similar to the male. Wing expanse: 125–130 mm (Evans 1932).

Four specimens of this species were collected at Yakama (=Jakhama), Naga Hills (Nagaland) at 1520m in July in 1911 and 1912 (Tytler1915). One male was later collected by O.C. Ollenbach from Jakhamain Naga Hills at ~1800m on 25 June 1924, which is preserved in the National Forest Insect Reference Collection (NFRIC) at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. There are no other published records of this species from Naga Hills thereafter, and its occurrence in India has been reported as doubtful as surveys in Sikkim, eastern Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya and Myanmar have failed to record this species (Tytler 1940; Varshney & Shukla 1988; Haribal 1992; Kinyon 2004; Borang et al. 2008; Singh et al. 2011; Gogoi2012, 2013; Kunte et al. 2012; Sondhiet al. 2013).

The distribution of this species extends from northeastern India through China to Taiwan. S. funebrisoccurs as three sub-species. The subspecies S.f. funebrisLeech known from Naga Hills in India also occurs in western China, S.f. genestieri Oberthür occurs in Yunnan Province in China and S.f. fuluralis Matsumura is found in Taiwan. The species has been bred on Celtis sinensis in Yunnan, China.

Discussion: During the course of a survey on ‘Re-assessment of forest types of India’, in UpperDebang Valley District of Arunachal Pradesh this species was incidentally photographed on the road side and later identified. The details of this record are presented below (Table 1), along with the images (Image 1 a&b).

At the site where this species was observed, biotic interferences were low although threats to the forests in the area include shifting cultivation, grazing, fuelwood and timber extraction on a minor scale.

The present record extends the known Indian distribution of the species to Arunachal Pradesh (eastern Himalaya) from its previously reported range in the Naga Hills (Evans 1932), a different hill range and this record is more than 200km away from pervious records.

References

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