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STAT AU A S RI 3 00 0 leA 1 997 I ., . FAUNA OF WEST BENGAL PART-7 INSECTA (Diptera and Lepidoptera) Edited by The Director Zoological SUr'ey of India, Ca/clltt(l ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA 1997 © Government of India, 1997 Published: July, 1997 ISBN 81-85874-03-4 Project Co-ordinator Dr. A. K. Ghosh Price Inland : Rs. 1200.00 f<?reign : $ 70 £ 50 Production Publication Division, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta. Printed at PRESTE(:H, 39, Mahatma Gandhi Road,Calcutta 7000 82 and Published by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta. CONTENTS Part· 7 1997 Pages 1-793 INSECTA: DIPTERA - M. Dutta, P. Parui & M. Mukherjee 1 INSECTA: DIPTERA: ASILIDAE - A.N.T. Joseph & P. Parui 77 INSECTA: DIPTERA :"SIMULIIDAE -M. Datta 127 INSECTA: DIPTERA: CHIRONOMIDAE - P. K. Chaudhuri & Sailesh Chattopadhyay 163 INSECTA: LEPIDOPTERA: ZYGAENIDAE - D. P. Bhattacharya 225 INSECTA: LEPIDOPTERA: ARCTIIDAE - S. K. Ghosh & M. Chaudhury 247 ,"" ~SECTA : LEPIDOPTERA: HESPERIIDAE - S. K. Ghosh & M. Chaudhury 275 INSECTA: PYRALIDAE - D. P. Bhattacharya 319 INSECTA LEPIDOPTERA SATURNIIDAE - I. J. Gupta 409 INSECTA LEPIDOPTERA L YCAENIDAE -I. J. Gupta 429 INSECTA :LEPIDOPTERA HETEROCERA GEOMETRIDAE - D. K. Mandai & S. K. Ghosh 491 INSECTA LEPIDOPTERA: AMA THUSIIDAE ACRAEIDAE NYMPHALIDAE RIODINIDAE - I. J. Gupta 533 INSECTA LEPIDOPTERA HETEROCERA SPHINGIDAE, LASIOCAMPIDAE, L YMANTRIIDAE & RAT ARDIDAE - D. K. MandaI & D. R. Maulik 613 INSECTA LEPIDOPTERA CTEXIUCHIDAE & HYPSIDAE - S. K. Ghosh & Mridula Chaudhury 689 INSECTA LEPIDOPTERA: PIERIDAE - S. K. Ghosh & M. Chaudhury 705 INSECTA SA TYRIDAE - D. P. Bhattacharya 729 INSECTA LEPIDOPTERA RHOPALOCERA PAPILIONIDAE & DANAINENYMPHALIDAE - D. K. Mandai & D. R. Maulik 755 State Fauna Series 3 : Fauna ofWesl Bengal, Part 7: 1-76, 1997 INSECTA : DIPTERA M. DUTIA, P. PARUI AND M. MUKHERJEE Zoological Survey ofI ndia, Calcutta INTRODUcnON West Bengal, a State in the eastern India, lies approximately between 86-35'" and 89-35'" E longitudes and 21-31'" and 27-14'" N latitudes, under the Tropic of Cancer. It can be considered "India in a miniature form", because it coins all major physiographical features of India as a whole. It rises from the sea-level at the Bay of Bengal to a maximum elevation of over 3650 m at the mountain ranges of Sandakphu and Phalut in the Himalaya. The entire Darjiling District and a part of the J alpaiguri District cover the lofty mountains and hills down to the Terai, with sub-temperate and sub-tropical climate. The submontane region includes the rest of the Jalpaiguri District and the District of Koch Bihar, with sub-tropical to tropical climate. The Puruliya District, the major parts of the Bankura and Birbhum Districts, the western part of the Bacddhaman District and the north-western part of the Medinipur District are essentially a projected region of the Chotanagpur Plateau from Bihar with semi-arid tropical climate. The southern part of the Medinipur District and the 24-Parganas District from the coastal region, with moist tropical climate as in the remaining parts of the plains in the State. Owing to this tremendous diversity in the physiography, the State has had its variegated assemblages of flora and fauna of special interest The Diptera fauna of West Bengal is fairly known and the large part of the credit goes to a number of renowned dipterists working in the age-old Indian Museum/Zoological Survey of India and the School of Tropical Medicine located at Calcutta, apart from certain workers in Colleges, Universittes and other premier institutes in the State as well as in the country. Moreover, from the times immemorial, there are gracious contributions from foreign workers who were fond of visiting "Bengal", especially Darjiling, the queen of the hill-stations in India. References to such works are cited under each family in the text Recently, several collecting trips were conducted disLrictwise by this institute for addition and revaluation of the fauna in West Bengal in aid of our comprehensive knowledge. Such trips that brought the Dipterous material for this report are enumerated below along with that of earlier days. BANKURA M. Dutta 1985 (October) BARDDHAMAN S. K. Ghosh 1985 (October) B.N. Das 1985 (December) CALCUTIA A. P. Kapur 1959 (December) S. Ali 1965 (January) B. Chakraborty 1965 (January) K. D. Chauerjee 1965 (August) O. B. Chhotani 1965 (October) A. N. T. Joseph 969 (February) ~ S. K. Gupta 1982 (April) P. Parui 1988 (November) 2 State Fauna Series 3 : Fauna of West Bengal DARJILING H. S. Sharma 1973 (April) B. C. Nandi 1975 (April) A. N. T. Joseph 1978 (September) M. Prasad 1979 (July-August) A. K. Hazra 1986 (March) B. C. Das 1986 (April) R. C. Basu 1986 (April) HAORA K. R. Rao 1965 (October) & 1967 (November) A. N. T. Joseph 1967 (August) P. Parui 1967 (November) HUGLI K. D. Chatterjee 1961 (October) A. N. T. Joseph 1964 ~ovember) K. R. Rao 1964 (November) M. S. Shisodia 1965 (August) JALPAIGURI S. Chauopadhyya 1984 (December) M. Datta 1986-1987 (Dccembcr-J anuary) S. K. Tandon 1987 (October) s. KOCH BIHAR 1985 (October) Chattop~dhyaya R. S. Barman 1986 (December) MALDA K. P. Mukherjee 1987 (June) MEDINIPUR B. C. Das 1985 (August) S. Biswas 1985 (September) NADIA B. C. Nandi 1974 (August) B. N. Das 1985-1986 (Dccembcr-J anuary) A. R. Lahiri 1986 (January-Fcbruary) 1986 (November) PURULIYA M. DaLta 1985 (November) S. Sen 1985 (November) B. C. Das 1986 (July) 24-PARGANAS A. Suroto 1955 (December) S. Ali 1955 (December) & 1960 (January) R. K. Varshncy 1962 (January) K. K. Ray 1965 (August) K. R. Rao 1965 (December) A. N. T. Joseph 1966 (December) N. K. Pramanik 1977 (November) P. Parui 1986 (January) B. N. Das 1986 {March) M. Mukherjee 1988 (February) DATTA el al. : Insecta: Diplera 3 An attempt is made here to report the material comprising families : Tipulidae, Psychodidae, Bibionidae. Stratiomyidae, Tabanidae, Bombyliidae, Syrphidae, Micropezidae, OliLidae, Sciomyzidae, Sepsidae, Chloropidae, Ephydridae, Hippoboscidae, Muscidae, Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae. The families Simuliidae and Asilidae are, however, dealt with separately. Finally, a few old collections from the State reported elsewhere recently are only referred to this paper, barring citation of the same material once again. The species' recorded for the first time from West Bengal are marked 'with a single asterisk, and double, if it is from India. MATERIALS AND METHODS The diptera are a large and diverse group of insects inhabiting almost all possible situations. Nearly the half of Diptera in the~ immature stages live in water. Collecting in the vicinity of water where adults are most likely to occur, is, therefore, most profitable. Sweeping by an insect net (with fine white cloth) through a'site of grass, herbs, shrubs or tree-tops along the sides of water-bodies or in crop-fields or even in the 'rorest is the general method of acquiring a great number of specimens in the shortest possible time. The other ideal spot for collection is the animal-fanns where several groups of Diptera breed or live on animals or on their excrements. Such sweeping by a net or picking single specimens on animals, walls, windows, tree-trunks, large leaves and so on will also yield good catches. The Dipterous specimens are very delicate and fragile and so a careless touch easily removes the pubescence, wings and legs or even the entire head. It is, therefore, imperative to take away specimens from the net after sweeping only once or twice. The perfect condition of specimens depends not only upon careful sweeping but also upon cautious killing and taking out of the net. After sweeping, the contents of the net are pushed to the bottom by means of gentle flying in the air for sometime and then pinching the net with the hand, the boltom .w ith the contents is driven in the killing jar (glass jar having at the bOLlom a layer of colton soaked with Chloroform and Benzene lined by a cover of blotting paper) and is kept for sometime allowing the insects to die. Thereafter, the net is taken out and spread on the ground for picking up the dca<r specimens in the insect envelopes by means of a hair-brush or a light forceps (leave for holding wings only). The specimens must accompany the collection-data, i.e., place of collection, altitude, nature of habitat, date of collection, name of collector etc. written with a pencil. The specimens in the envelopes are then dried in the sum .and are temporarily preserved in the paper/cardboard box containing naphthelene powder/balls as fungicide. In the laboratory, the specimens in the envelopes are kept above a layer of phenol solution at the bottom of a desiccator-like container for 2-3 days at normal temperature, mainly for softening the body-parts in aid of perfect stretching and mounting on pins on the pinning board. The tiny insects are preferably mounted on paper cones. After about a week, the set specimens along with the nicely written data-labels attached to pins, are removed in the insect box containing cotton-balls soaked with phenol solution at four comers for final preservation and studies. If any part of a specimen requires examination, that part is severed from the body upon sofLenning and cleared in phenol solution. It should strictly be borne in mind that the part whether mounted on slide or preserved in a microvial is to be kept with the specimen with an appropriate reference to successive workers. For further details and comprehensive knowledge on mounting and preservation, the reader is referred to Brunelli (1912b). 4 Siale Fauna Series 3 : Fauna o/West Bengal MORPHOLOGY AND 1ERMINOLOGY The Diptera (Fig. A) structuraly comprise the most highly specialized members of the Class Insecta. Nearly all parts of the head, thorax and abd~mcn exhibit a wide diversity and are important in taxonomy. The haad (Fig. G) is occupied by two large compound eyes which are, as a rule, larger in males than in females. The space between the eyes is the frons or front. The eyes are generally contiguous in males (holoptic) and are markedly separated by the frons in females (dichoptic); rarely both the conditions are found in both sexes. The upper facets are larger and more prominent than the lower ones in males of some species; this condition is rarely seen in females. The upper part of the frons is the vertex and below it are often three small simple eyes called the ocelli, occasionally on a triangular depressed space. Besides this ocellar triangle (vertical triangle) there is in the holoptic condition another triangle called the frontal triangle below the eyes above the antennae. The space demarked by the frontal suture (absent in Orthorrhapha and Aschiza) is the face bounded laterally by the facial ridges or facialia which carry vibrissae at lower extremities. The frontal suture is actually the consequence of invagination of a frontal sac or ptilinum used for emergence from the puparium. There is a crescentic sclerite known as the frontal lunule above the bases of the antennae in the Cyclorrhapha. The genae or parafacialia or checks are the spaces on either side of the face anterior to eyes. The upward continuations of the genae arc parafrontals, while lower ones are jowls. The sclerite anterior to the face is the clypeus. The antennae offer very important characteristics for classification of Diptenl. The antenna consists pf scape, pedicel and flagellum, the latter typically of a variable number of nearly similar cylindrical seglTIcnts in the Nematocera (Fig. B). In the Brachycera (Figs. C & D) and especially in the Cyclorrhaph? (Fig. G), it is 3-segments and carries apically an annulated or jointed appendage. In the Brachyccra, it is called style which is always terminal in position. In the Cyclorrhapha, it is very slender and is arista which is usually dorsal in position. cat~d The mouthparts of Diptera· are ~ighly modified in adaptation to diverse habits:, The mandibles in Diptera are generally absent and the maxiUae are genera)lr incomplete but the palpi are well-developed and consist of 4 segments or are reduced to single segmented appendages. The labium forms the proboscis which is often used in indentification of certain species. The mouthparts in the Cyclorrhapha, however, show the highest modifications in forming the proboscis. Moreover, the chaetotaxy in the head as well as in the thorax carries tremendous value in identification specially in the Cyclorrhapha. The names of the hairs, setae or bristles are derived from the seal or Slale of occurcnce. The thorax (Figs. H & I) is characterized by the great development of its median segment, the mesothorax and the consequent reduction of the prothorax and metathorax. The mesonotum is distinctly divisible into prescutum, scutum, scutellum and postnotum, although the latter being greatly modified in the higher Diptera. The transverse suture completely or incompletely separates the scutum from the presculum. There are certain swellings called calli or callosities on either side of the mesonOlum. The humeral callus occupies the antero-dorsal corner of the prescutum, the prealar callus above the wing-base, and the postalar callus on the postero-doral corner of the scutum. Generally, both the protonum and the metanotum are hidden by the overlying prescutum and scutellum. The sides of the thorax (pleurae) in most Diptera are clearly divisible by sutures. The three main sutures recognized are: (1) the notoplcural suture running from the humeral callus to the wing-base and separating the