Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October 2024 | 16(10): 26060–26062

 

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

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9417.16.10.26060-26062

#9417 | Received 14 August 2024

 

 

Reply to Sheikh’s Response to First record of Pieris napi L.

 

Firdousa Rasool 1    & Altaf Hussain Mir 2

 

1,2 Entomology Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir 190006, India.

1 firdousabintirasool@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 draltaf_786@yahoo.com

 

 

Date of publication: 26 October 2024 (online & print)

 

Citation: Rasool, F. & A.H. Mir (2024). Reply to Sheikh’s Response to First record of Pieris napi L. Journal of Threatened Taxa 16(10): 26060–26062. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9417.16.10.26060-26062

  

Copyright: © Rasool & Mir 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.

 

 

It is an immense pleasure for us that our manuscript is gaining attention from entomologists nationwide and read with enthusiasm. As a result, some of them are responding to our published article entitled “First record of Pieris napi L. (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) from Kashmir Valley, India” [#8233], which was published on 26 July 2024 in the Journal of Threatened Taxa.

Firstly, it should be made clear that no one is an expert in any field and that humans are lifelong learners. Diversity is a vast issue that is constantly changing due to the discovery of hundreds of new species and the extinction of old ones after every blink.

We communicated this manuscript in October 2022, peer reviewed three times and taken almost one year and nine months to publish in this reputed journal.

Furthermore, we have some collaborated with taxonomists of Lepidoptera at international forum like Butterfly Research Center from Bhimtal and others for butterfly identification.

We were well aware of the most recent publications, and we cited all the sources that were pertinent to our study. Nevertheless, the scope of our research study was limited to Srinagar District’s Dachigam National Park, a popular tourist destination with a global reputation, where undoubtedly more opportunities for the presence of new species is obvious. Hence, a good study site for upcoming researchers. Besides, all the references the querier had quoted were already reviewed thoroughly and have nothing to do with the subject of our investigation. It appears that they wish to draw attention to their own checklist (Sheikh et al. 2021) and receive a greater number of citations. It is highly recommended that they update their checklist as some species require modification.

Furthermore, our study is a new report and obviously not published before. It should be accepted by everyone in this context that new species do not wait to be discovered before being reported by professionals or experts only. We did sampling in the study area and have specimens available; if anybody is unsure, they can visit our lab anytime to view the samples.

Here we just highlight the differences between P. napi L. and P. ajaka (Moore) on certain grounds.

Butterfly databases: Butterflies of the World – Natural History Museum; Lepidoptera Barcode of Life; Scientific articles and research papers – published studies on Pieridae butterflies in journals like Journal of Lepidopterists’ Society, Zoological Science, Entomological Research; Online encyclopedias and wikis: Encyclopedia of Life; Butterfly enthusiast websites; ifoundbutterflies website; Butterfly enthusiast forums; Butterfly Conservation; iNaturalist and much more.

 

Differences

Pieris napi and P. ajaka share some similarities as members of the Pieridae family, however, they differ in taxonomy, classification, appearance, habitat preferences, behavior, and ecological roles. Pieris napi has been considered a separate species by many authors who have provided distinguishing characteristic features (Richards 1940; Petersen 1949; Smith 1980; Forsberg & Wiklund 1989; Wiklund et al. 1991; Bissoondath & Wiklund 1996; Ohsaki & Sato 1999; Ferkau & Fischer 2006; Rayor et al. 2007; Chew 2009; Perveen & Ahmad 2012; Perveen & Fazal 2013; Tadokoro 2015; Bibi et al. 2022; Ge et al. 2023). Here we cite a few taxonomic keys for the reader’s perusal. Taxonomic keys by Perveen & Fazal (2013).

In addition to our published paper one can check more differences as European or Green-veined White Pieris napi:

Habitat: Europe, Asia and northern Africa; the Himalayan region, including the northeastern states of India such as Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Uttarakhand, as well as Bhutan, Myanmar, China, Japan, North America, and Japan (Geiger & Shapiro 1992; Shaoji 2009; Gogoi 2013; Perveen & Fazal 2013; Lodh & Agarwal 2015; Tadokoro 2015; Tadokoro 2017).

Geographical distribution: Cool-temperate to cold wooded biomes of the northern hemisphere (Geiger & Shapiro 1992).

Habitus: wingspan 40–50 mm.

Upper wings: white with black tips and greenish-yellow veins.

Lower wings: yellowish-green with black spots.

Habitat: meadows, gardens, and woodland edges.

Food source: garlic mustard, cuckooflower and other Brassicaceae.

Resting host: Stellaria media, Geranium sp., and Rubus sp.

Himalayan Green-veined White or Ajaka White Pieris ajaka:

Habitat: eastern Asia including China, Japan, & Korea and southern Asia,

Wingspan: 50–60 mm.

Upper wings: white with black tips and veins.

Lower wings: yellowish-green with black spots and a distinctive red or orange spot.

Habitat: woodland edges, grasslands, and mountainous areas.

Food source: various plants, including Japanese Angelica tree and Japanese Spikenard.

 

Taxonomy and classification

- Both P. napi and P. ajaka belong to the family Pieridae, which is known for its white and yellow butterflies. However, they are distinct species within this family.

 

Appearance

- Pieris napi, commonly known as the Green-veined White Butterfly, typically has white wings with greenish veins, which is a key identifying feature.

- Pieris ajaka, on the other hand, is often referred to as the Japanese White Butterfly or commonly known as Himalayan Green-veined White and may exhibit variations in wing coloration and patterns that differ from those of P. napi.

 

Habitat and distribution

- Pieris napi is widely distributed across Europe and parts of Asia, often found in meadows, and gardens.

- Pieris ajaka is primarily found in eastern Asia, particularly in Japan, and may prefer different habitats compared to P. napi.

 

Behavior and ecology

- Both species have similar life cycles, including egg, larval, pupal, and adult stages, but they may have different host plants for their larvae.

- Pieris napi larvae typically feed on plants in the mustard family, while P. ajaka may have a different set of host plants.

 

Natural enemies

- Both species face threats from natural predators and parasites, but the specific enemies may vary based on their geographical locations and habitats.

 

Conservation status

- The conservation status of these species can differ based on their populations and the environmental pressures they face in their respective regions.

 

Based on the existing literature and our research, it can be concluded that P. napi differs greatly from P. ajaka and cannot be considered a single species as the querier had intended. The querier would like to divert our attention to their checklist (Sheikh et al. 2021) where they reported P. ajaka Moore, 1865 from Rajouri District of Jammu region of J&K and not any record of P. napi. We report P. napi solely in Dachigam National Park, although we had 30 more study sites in Kashmir Valley. We are working on the updated checklist as additional species require modifications and the updated version seems to be the need of the hour.

 

References

 

Bibi, M., S. Bibi, N. Akhtar, Z. Ullah, M.F. Khan & I.Z. Qureshi (2022). Butterfly (Order: Lepidoptera) species Richness, diversity and distribution in different localities of Battagram, Pakistan. Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences 29(3): 1853–1857.

Bissoondath, C.J. & C. Wiklund (1996). Effect of male mating history and body size on ejaculate size and quality in two polyandrous butterflies, Pieris napi and Pieris rapae (Lepidoptera: Pieridae). Functional Ecology 10(4): 457–464.

Chew, F.S. & W.B. Watt (2006). The green-veined white (Pieris napi L.), its pierine relatives, and the systematics dilemmas of divergent character sets (Lepidoptera, Pieridae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 88(3): 413–435.

Perveen, F. & F. Fazal (2013). Biology and distribution of butterfly fauna of Hazara University, Garden Campus, Mansehra, Pakistan. Open Journal of Animal Sciences 3(2A): 28–36.

Ferkau, C. & K. Fischer (2006). Costs of reproduction in male Bicyclus anynana and Pieris napi butterflies: effects of mating history and food limitation. Ethology 112(11): 1117–1127.

Forsberg, J. & C. Wiklund (1989). Mating in the afternoon: Time-saving in courtship and remating by females of a polyandrous butterfly Pieris napi L. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 25: 349–356.

Gogoi, M.J. (2013). A preliminary checklist of butterflies recorded from Jeypore-Dehing forest, eastern Assam, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 5(2): 3684–3696. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3022.3684-96

Ge, S.X., Z.H. Jiang, J.Q. Wang, K. Song, C. Zhang & S.J. Hu (2023). A revision of the Pieris napi-complex (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) and similar species with distribution in China. Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny 81: 257–287. https://doi.org/10.3897/asp.81.e85191

Geiger, H. & A.M. Shapiro (1992). Genetics, systematics and evolution of holarctic Pieris napi species group populations (Lepidoptera, Pieridae). Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research 30(2): 100–122.

Lodh, R. & B.K. Agarwala (2015). Inventory of butterfly fauna (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) of Tripura, India, in the Indo-Myanmar biogeographical zone, with records of threatened taxa. Check List 11(2): 1–37. https://doi.org/10.15560/11.2.1591

Ohsaki, N. & Y. Sato (1999). The role of parasitoids in evolution of habitat and larval food plant preference by three Pieris butterflies. Population Ecology 41(1): 107–119.

Perveen, F. & A. Ahmad (2012). Checklist of butterfly fauna of Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Arthropods 1(3): 1–12.

Petersen, B. (1949). On the Evolution of Pieris napi L. Evolution 3(4): 269–278.

Rayor, S.L., J.L. Mooney & J.A. Renwick (2007). Predatory behavior of Polistes dominulus wasps in response to cardenolides and glucosinolates in Pieris napi caterpillars. Journal of Chemical Ecology 33(6): 1177–1185.

Richards, O.W. (1940). The  biology  of  the  small  white  butterfly (Pieris rapae) with special  reference to  the factors  controlling its abundance. Journal of Animal Ecology 9(2): 243–288.

Shaoji, H. (2009). Preliminary field survey of butterflies on Xishan Hill (Kunming, Yunnan Province, China). The Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera 41: 60 –69.

Smith, A.G. (1980). Environmental factors influencing pupal colour determination in Lepidoptera. II. Experiments with Pieris rapae, Pieris napi and Pieris brassicae. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B. Biological Sciences 207(1167): 163–186.

Tadokoro, T. (2015). Taxonomic status of Pieris (napi) nesis Fruhstorfer, 1909 (Lepidoptera, Pieridae). Lepidoptera Science 66(3–4): 104–108.

Tadokoro, T., S. Wangchuk, S. Wangdi, K. Wangdi, R. Wangdi, S. Drukupa & M. Yago (2017). Description of a new subspecies of Pieris erutae Poujade, 1888 from Eastern Bhutan, with taxonomic notes on the Pieris napi group from the Himalayas (Lepidoptera, Pieridae). Lepidoptera Science 68(3–4): 81–91.

Wiklund, C., S. Nylin & J. Forsberg (1991). Sex-related variation in growth rate as a result of selection for large size and protandry in a bivoltine butterfly, Pieris napi. Oikos 60(2): 241–250.