Status and Distribution of Appias Lalage Butterfly (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) in the Western Ghats, South western India

2008·2.6 MB·

by  Krushnamegh Kunte

:
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
the abundanceofZygopterainYercaudandthe reverse may Clausnitzer 2003; Oppel 2005a,b) might be responsible for
betruefortheabundanceofAnisopterainotherhillyregions. their abundance when compared to other families, namely
OdonataofFamilyLibellulidae(Anisoptera)arecommonin Coenagrionidae, Lestidae and Platycnemididae recorded in
plains and theirdiversity decreases with increase in altitude thepresent study.
because fast flowing streams and rivers are not suitable for Higher species richness and diversity of Odonata in
Libellulidaenaiads,whichrequiresluggishandweedyponds Yercaudcouldbeattributedtothevastarea,varietyofbiotopes
(Samways, 1989). But Libellulidae was dominant at higher (temporarywaterbodies,river,stream,cascade)andhighshade
altitudes in the present study. Eurytopic (wide habitat cover.ThisisinagreementwiththefindingsofSamways(1989)
tolerance)natureofLibellulidae(StewartandSamways 1998; in SouthAfricaandOppel (2005a) inPapuaNew Guinea.
REFERENCES
Asaithambi, M. & S. Manickavasagam(2002): OdonataofAnnamalai Madurai,TamilNadu. Zoos’PrintJ. 20: 2051-2052.
University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamil Nadu. Zoos' Print J. 17: Kumar, A. & M. Prasad (1981): Field ecology, zoogeography and
704-706. taxonomy ofthe Odonata ofWestern Himalaya, India. Rec. Zool.
Barrion,A.T. & J.A. Litsinger (1994):Taxonomyofrice insectpests Surv. India, Occ. Pap. 20: 1-118.
and their arthropod parasites and predators. Pp. 13-362. Miller, P.L. (1992): Dragonflies ofthe campus at Madurai Kamaraj
In:Heinrichs,E.A.(Ed.): BiologyandManagementofRiceInsects. University,Tamil Nadu, India.Notul. Odonatol. 3: 160-165.
NewDelhi: WileyEasternLimited. Oppel, S. (2005a): HabitatassociationsofanOdonatacommunityina
Carchint,G,A.GSolimni&A.Ruggiero(2005):Habitatcharacteristics lowermontanerainforestin PapuaNew Guinea. Int. J. Odonatol
and odonate diversity in mountain ponds ofcentral Italy. Aquatic 8: 243-257.
Conserv:Mar. Freshw. Ecosyst. 15: 573-581. Oppel, S. (2005b): Comparison oftwo Odonata communities from a
Clausnitzer,V. (2003): Dragonfly communities in coastal habitats of natural and a modified rainforest in Pupua New Guinea. Int. J.
Kenya: indication ofbiotope quality and the need ofconservation Odonatol. 9: 89-102.
measures.Biodives. Conserv. 12: 333-356. Palot, M.J. & V.P. Soniya (2000a): Odonata from Courtallam,
Emiliyamma, K.G. & C. Radhakrishnan (2000): Odonata (Insecta) of TamilNadu, SouthernIndia.Zoos'PrintJ. 15: 301-303.
Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala, India. Rec. Zool. Surv. Palot,M.J.&V.P.Soniya(2000b):Asmallcollectionofodonatesfrom
India 98: 157-167. Tuticorin. InsectEnvironment6: 122-123.
Emiliyamma, K.G. & C. Radhakrishnan (2003): Odonata (Insecta) of Ram,R„V.D.Srivastava&M.Prasad(1982):Odonata(Insecta)fauna
IndiraGandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park,Tamil Nadu. ofCalcuttaandsurroundings. Rec. Zool. Surv. India 80: 169-196.
Zoos'PrintJ. 18: 1264-1266. Samways, M.J. (1989): Taxon turnover in Odonata across a 3000 m
Fraser,F.C. (1933):TheFaunaofBritishIndia,includingCeylonand altitudinal gradient in Southern Africa. Odonatologica 18:
Burma.OdonataVol. I. London: TaylorandFrancisLtd. 426pp. 263-274.
Fraser,F.C. (1934):TheFaunaofBritishIndia,includingCeylon and Schindler,M.,C.Fesl&A.Chovanec(2003):Dragonflyassociations
Burma.Odonata. Vol. II. London:TaylorandFrancisLtd. 398pp. (Insecta: Odonata) in relation to habitat variables: a multivariate
Fraser,F.C. (1936): TheFaunaofBritishIndia,IncludingCeylonand approach. Hydrobiologia497: 169-180.
Burma. Odonata. Vol. III. London: Taylor and Francis Ltd., Sharma, G., R. Sundararaj & L.R. Karibasvaraja (2007): Species
461 pp. diversity of Odonata in the selected provenances of sandal in
Gunathilagaraj, K., R.P. Soundarajan, N. Chitra & M. Swamiappan SouthernIndia.Zoos'PrintJ.22: 2165-2161.
(1999): Odonata of rice fields of Coimbatore. Zoos' Print J. Simpson,E.H. (1949): Measurementofdiversity. Nature 163: 688.
14 43-44. Stewart, D.A.B. & M.J. Samways (1998): Conserving dragonfly
Kandibane, M., S. Raguraman & N. Ganapathy (2005): Relative (Odonata) assemblages relative to river dynamics in an African
abundance and diversity of Odonata in an irrigated rice field of Savannagamereserve. Cons. Biol. 12: 683-692.
17. STATUS AND DISTRIBUTION OFAPPIASLALAGE BUTTERFLY (LEPIDOPTERA: PIERIDAE)
IN THE WESTERN GHATS, SOUTH-WESTERN INDIA
Krushnamegh Kunte1,E. Kunhikrishnan2-4, M. Balakrishnan2andC. Susanth3
'FASCenterforSystemsBiology,HarvardUniversity,52OxfordSt.,Cambridge,MA02138,USA.Email:[email protected]
"DeparmentofZoology,UniversityofKerala,Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala,India.
’Prakriti,IndiraNagar,PeroorkadaP.O. 695005,Kerala,India.Email: [email protected]
4Email: [email protected]
Much confusion surrounds the occurrence ofAppias recognized biodiversity hotspots. Its evergreen forest flora
lalageDoubleday, 1842(Lepidoptera:Pieridae:Pierinae),also andfaunaareisolatedfromthenearestHimalayanandnorth-
known as the Spot Puffin butterfly, in the Western Ghats. eastIndianforestsbyover 1,500kmofdry,mixeddeciduous
The Western Ghats is a mountain chain that runs along the forestsontheDeccanPlateau. Hence,theWesternGhatsisa
westerncoast ofsouthern India, and itis one ofthe globally key feature of peninsular India from biogeographic,
354 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 105 (3), Sep-Dec 2008
.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
biodiversityandconservationperspectives(Gadgil 1996). In 23°N
this note we presentourobservations onA. lalage to clarify Gujarat MadhyaPradesh Id * .
22°N-
its status and distribution within this mountainrange.
The type specimen ofA. lalage was taken from Khasi
21°N
Hillsinnorth-easternIndia,whichwerepreviouslyincludedin
Assam, but now belong to the state ofMeghalaya, bordering 20”N
Bangladesh. The currently well-known distribution of the Maharashtra
nominate subspecies is throughout the Himalayas (Himachal 19°N
Pradesh and Uttarakhand to Nepal, Sikkim, northern West
18°N-
Bengal,BhutanandArunachalPradesh),theKhasi,Garo,Jaintia,
*Hyderabad
CacharandLushaiHillsofthePatkaiRange(coveringtheentire 17°N * llilf- -
north-eastern India) and the mountainous region ofMyanmar aPradesh
(Evans 1932; Talbot 1939; Wynter-Blyth 1957; Smith 1989; 16°N-
Haribal 1992; Larsen 2004). Throughout its range it occurs
between 550nrand 2,500mabovemsl,butispartialtohigher 15°N-
elevations;inhabitsevergreen forests,anditmaybeseasonally
14°N
common(Evans 1932;ParsonsandCantlie 1948;Wynter-Blyth
1957; Smith 1989; Haribal 1992; Larsen 2004). Two other Bengalui
13°N
Chennai
subspecies have been listed under A. lalage-. (a) A. lalage
lageloides Crowley, 1900 occurs in Hainan, China (lo 2000), 12”N- * MMj 'dkj*'* "(r-
and (b) A. lalage lagela Moore, 1878 occurs in southern f :. ik
Myanmar,ThailandandPeninsularMalaysia(Evans 1932;Talbot 11°N PalghatGap4 TamilNadu
1939; Pinratana 1983; Corbet etal. 1992); although lagela is J;
%
now widely recognized as a subspecies ofA.pandione Geyer, 10°N- O-=AA.. ilnadlraage /; /V
1832ratherthanofA.lalage(Pinratana 1983;Corbet<?/al. 1992). 9°N- =A. wardii IIlP^
The occurrence of A. lalage in the Western Ghats, iPf
ThiruvananthapuramT SRI
however, has been confirmed only recently. Early references 8°N- LANKA
onIndianbutterfliesdonotmentionthesouthernIndianrange
of the species, probably because the British collectors 72°E 73°E 74°E 75”E 76°E 77”E 78°E 79”E 80°E 81°E
a1p9p1a0r;enAtnltyradimd1n9o2t4;coElvleacntsit1f93r2o;mTtahleboWtes1t9e3r9n; WGyhnattesr-(BElvyatnhs Fig. 1: DistributAi.onwaofrdAipipiinatshelaWleasgteelranlagGeh,aAt.sindrashivaand
1957). Some of the specimens collected by these collectors Each circle represents a spot recordforthe species, which are
wereinitially identifiedasA. lalage buttheyturnedouttobe colour-codedasshown in the map. Half-splitwhite-greycircles
, representlocalitieswhere A. indrashivaand A. wardiihave
misidentifiedAppiasindrashivaSwinhoe, 1885,theSahyadri
been recordedtogether.Three-waysplitwhite-grey-black
Plain Puffin (Harish Gaonkar, pers. comm.). Perhaps due to circles indicatethatall threespeciesco-occuratthe localities
this,claimsofoccurrenceofthisspeciesintheWesternGhats surveyed. Datafrom Kunte (unpublished manuscript).
were largely discredited, and there was no explanation for a
single specimen deposited in the collection of the Madras populationsofthespeciesweresimultaneouslyreportedfrom
GovernmentMuseum,Chennai.Thismalespecimen,collected southernWesternGhats,onefromKMTR,andtheotherfrom
from Kalakad Forest (now Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Eravikulam National Park, Kerala (Devy 1998;
Reserveandneighbouringforesttractsinsouth-westernTamil Kunhikrishnan 1998).Theseconfirmedforthefirsttimethat
Nadu;henceforthKMTR),wasawetseasonform(Satyamurti the A. lalage specimens reported by Satyamurti, Nalini and
1966).Although Satyamurti recognizedthatthis was thefirst Lomov were not stray and of unknown origin, but part of
record of the species from southern India, he did not report thriving populations within the southern Western Ghats. In
anyotherdetailsofthisspecimenorofthespeciesinthisarea. his paper Kunhikrishnan attempted to describe in detail the
In 1990s there were three important reports of the status of this species in the Western Ghats. We extend that
species from theWestern Ghats. First, in 1995 asingle male effort here with much more extensive observations that we
of a wet season form was reported mud-puddling at the have accumulatedoverthe past 10years.
GudamparaEstate, Idukkidistrict, Kerala, at 1,200mabove In subsequent years since Soubadra Devy and
msl(NaliniandLomov 1996). Shortlyafterwards,twoentire Kunhikrishnan’s reports, we have seen A. lalage in almost all
J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 105 (3), Sep-Dec 2008 355
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
themajormountainsinthestatesofTamilNaduandKeralain elevations(c. 1,200m-2,200m),however,A. lalagebecomes
the Western Ghats south of the Palghat Gap (Fig. 1). much more numerous than other Appias. Especially above
Particularly, wehave seenlargenumbers athigherelevations c. 1,500 m, A. wardii becomes scarce and A. indra and
in Eravikulam National Park, Grass Hills (the Anamalais), A. lalage are the only species ofAppias that are common,
PeriyarTigerReserve,ChemmunjiHillsandAthirumalaHills where A. lalage outnumbers A. indra. It is common along
inthePepparaWildlifeSanctuary(WLS)intheKeralapartof evergreenforestpathsandedges,onplateausandsteepslopes.
theAshambuHills,KMTR,SchendumeyWLS,PonmudiHills, Males mud-puddle frequently and several dozen may
Venkulamedu Hills and Agasthya Koodam Peak (border congregateonagoodpatch,eitherformingtheirownspecies
betweenNeyyarWLSandKMTR).Alloursightingsarefrom grouporjoining congregations ofotherAppias.
600 m to 2,600 m above msl. We have, however, failed to There seem to be two flight periods: pre-monsoon and
locateA. lalage north ofthe Palghat Gap in spite ofyears of post-monsoon. At c. 700-900 m in KMTR we have observed
observationsintheseparts.ThisisinterestingsincethePalghat veryfreshspecimensinfairnumbers(uptoadozenindividuals
Gap is a biogeographic barrier that isolates many endemic everyday)inMayandearlyJune.However,thepost-monsoon
butterflies on its northernand southern sides (Gaonkar 1996; (October-November) seems to be the better season, during
Kunte2008).Itisuptoa40kmwidelow-lyingareathatforms which dozens ofindividuals may be seen in a single day. At
amajorbreakamongthetallmountainsofthesouthernWestern Eravikulam-Grass Hills it is plentiful inOctober, flying even
Ghats. The Nilgiri Mountainsjust north of the Palghat Gap along the main tourist road that passes through shola forests
have historically been extensively studied for their butterfly and tea plantations around Rajamalai. We have also
fauna and earlier workers in that region had never sighted occasionally observed individuals flying at an altitude of
m
A. lalage (see Larsen 1987-1988 and references therein). e. 2,600 alongthe slopes ofAnaimudi Peak(theAnaimudi
MathewandRahmathulla,however,reportedA.p. lagelafrom Peak,atanelevationof2,695m,isthehighestpointinsouthern
Silent Valley National Park in Kerala, which is north of the India and included in the Eravikulam National Park). Prom
PalghatGap(MathewandRahamathulla 1993).Thisrecord is December the populations decline gradually, the species
doubtful because A.p. lagela occurs in southern Myanmar, becomingarare sight insummer(March-April).
ThailandandMalaysia(seeabove), and isunlikelytooccurin We hope that this note clarifies the status ofA. lalage
southernIndia. Dr. GeorgeMathewofKeralaLorest Research in southern India. We tentatively assign the Western Ghats
Institute atPeechi, firstauthorofthe 1994report, informedus populationstothenominatesubspecies,A./. lalage.Although
thattherecordwasprobablybasedonjustoneortwospecimens wehavereportedseasonaloccurrenceandsomehabitsofthe
collected, whichcouldnotbe locatedwhen wecontactedhim, species and delineated its distribution within the Western
and felt that more material was needed to verify the previous Ghats, we do not know its early stages and other natural
record. Oursuspicion isthatthiswould turnouttobeA. indra history.Thisisparticularly importantbecausehostplantsand
shiva, although we do notrule out the possibility that itwas a earlystagesofA. lalageareunknownevenfromthenorthern
strayA. lalage that might have been blownacrossthe Palghat populations (Robinson et al. 2001). We hope that this
Gap by strong winds. At present, from ourfailure to find the information becomes available soon.
species north ofthe Palghat Gap and in absence ofany other
proof, we conclude that in the Western Ghats A. lalage is ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
confinedtothehillssouthofthePalghatGap.Wehaveobserved
itonbotheastern andwestern slopesoftheWesternGhats. Krushnamegh Kunte is grateful to James Zakarias
Our observations indicate that even in the Western (Wildlife Warden, Eravikulam National Park) and
Ghats A. lalage is partial to evergreen forests at higher R. Annamalai (IFS, Field Director, KMTR) for permission
elevations. At lower elevations (c. 600 m-1,000 m) in the to survey butterflies at Rajamalai and Sengeltheri,
Western Ghats, where it is very rare and co-occurs with respectively. Kunhikrishnan and Balakrishnan thank the
A. indra shiva and A. wardii Moore, 1884 (the Lesser WildlifeWingofthe KeralaForestDepartmentforfinancing
Albatross), the lattertwousually faroutnumberit.Athigher field workin Eravikulam National Park.
REFE
Antram, C.B. (1924): Butterflies of India. Thacker, Spink & Co., Devy, M.S. (1998): Occurrence of Spot Puffin (Appias lalage) in
Calcutta(Kolkata). Pp. 226. Kalakad MundanthuraiTigerReserve ofsouth Western Ghats.
Corbet,A.S.,H.M.Pendlebury&J.N.Eliot(1992):TheButterfliesof ./. BombayNat. Hist. Soc. 95: 522.
theMalayPeninsula.4thRevisedEd. MalayanNatureSociety, Evans,W.H.(1910):AlistofthebutterfliesofthePalniHills.J.Bombay
B&W
KaulaLumpur. Pp. 595 +63 colourplatesand6 plates. Nat. Hist. Soc. 20: 380-392.
356 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 105 (3), Sep-Dec 2008
)
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Evans, W.H. (1932): The Identification of Indian butterflies. 2nd ed. Mathew, G. & V.K. Rahamathulla (1993): Studies on the butterflies
Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai. Pp. 454. ofSilent Valley National Park. Entomon 18: 185-192.
Gadgil, M. (1996): Western Ghats: A lifescape. J. hid. Inst. Sci. Nalini,S.& B. Lomov(1996):Thespotpuffin butterflyAppiaslalage
76:495-504. lalage Doubleday (Pieridae) - a rare record for south India.
Gaonkar, H. (1996): Butterflies ofthe Western Ghats with notes on J. BombayNat. Hist. Soc. 93: 596-597.
thoseofSriLanka.ReporttoCentreforEcologicalSciences,Indian Parsons, R.E. & K. Cantlie(1948):Thebutterfliesofthe Khasiaand
InstituteofSciences, Bangalore, pp. 89. Jaintiahills,Assam. J. BombayNat. Hist. Soc. 47:499-522.
Haribal,M.(1992):TheButterfliesofSikkimHimalayaandtheirNatural Pinratana, A. (1983): Butterflies in Thailand. Vol. 2: Pieridae and
History.SikkimNatureConservationFoundation,Gangtok.Pp.217. Amathusiidae. Brothers of St. Gabriel in Thailand, Bangkok.
Io, C. (ed.) (2000): Monograph ofChinese Butterflies (Revised ed.). Pp. 71 +48colourplates.
HenanScientificandTechnological Publishing House. Pp. 845. Robinson, G.S., P.R. Ackery, I.J. Kitching, G.W. Beccaloni &
Kunhikrishnan, E. (1998): The butterfly missed in the High Ranges. L.M. Hernandez (2001): Hostplants of the Moth and Butterfly
BiodiversityIndia(IndianSocietyforConservationBiology-News Caterpillars of the Orientall Region. Natural History Museum,
Letter 3-7. London. Pp. 744.
Kunte, K. (2008): The Wildlife (Protection) Act and conservation Satyamurti, S.T. (1966): Descriptive Catalog ofthe Butterflies in the
prioritization of butterflies of the Western Ghats, southwestern Collection of the Madras Government Museum. The
India. Curr. Sci. 94: 729-735. CommissionerofMuseum, Chennai. Pp. 272.
Larsen, T.B. (1987-1988): The butterflies of the Nilgiri Mountains Smith, C. (1989): Butterflies of Nepal (Central Himalaya). Tecpress
ofsouthern India. J. BombayNat. Hist. Soc. 84: 26-54,219-316, ServiceL.P., Bangkok. Pp. 352.
560-584; 85:26-43. Talbot, G. (1939): The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and
Larsen, T.B. (2004): Butterflies of Bangladesh - An Annotated Burma: Butterflies,Vol. I.TaylorandFrancis,London. Pp.600.
Checklist. IUCN Bangladesh Country Office, Dhaka. Pp. 147 + Wynter-Blyth,M.A.(1957):ButterfliesoftheIndianRegion.Bombay
8colourplates. Natural History Society. Mumbai. Pp. 523.
A NEW RECORD OF HOST PLANT EMBELIA ACUTIPETALUM OFATLAS MOTHATTACUSATLAS
18.
LINNAEUS FROM KONKAN
SachinBalkrishnaPalkar1
'NearD.B..[.College,SathyabhamaSadan, Houseno.100. Mumbai-GoaHighway,A/p-Chiplun415 605, Ratnagiridistrict,
Maharashtra, India. Email: [email protected]
Atlas moth Attacus atlas Linnaeus of Family
Satumiidaeiscommonlyseeninmonsoon inKonkanregion.
OnJuly25,2008,1foundfivefinalinstarcaterpillarsofAtlas
moth Attacus atlas Linnaeus near a small village Kasba,
Taluka Sangameshwar, District Ratnagiri. Caterpillars were
mm
110 long. All caterpillars were feeding on leaves of
Embeliaacutipetalum(FamilyMyrsinaceae),acommonplant
in Konkan (Fig. 1). Local Marathi name of this plant is
‘Vavding’. Many food plants of Atlas moth Attacus atlas
Linnaeus are known, but there is no reference of this plant
and is being reportedhere as the firstrecord. Fig. 1: Final instarcaterpillarofAttacusatlasfeeding on the
leavesof Embeliaacutipetalum
19. ABUNDANCE OF THREE SPECIES OF THE HORSESHOE CRAB
ALONG THE COAST OF MALAYSIA
AnilChatterji1-2,Zaleha Kassim1-3, Hasnorhiyam Shahuddin'4and Faizah Shaharom15
'InstituteofTropicalAquaculture,UniversityMalaysiaTerengganu21030,Malaysia.
2Email: [email protected]
3Email: [email protected]
4Email: [email protected]
"Email: [email protected]
Horseshoecrabs, popularly known asa ‘livingfossil', has been proved to be of great value medically for the
are one ofthe best-known living animalson Earth. They are production of lectin (Saito et al. 1997) and tachyplesin I
importantforthepharmaceutical,clinicalandfoodindustries, (Morvan etal. 1997).
besides being good indicator organisms for monitoring the In some Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia,
healthofcoastal zones.Thebluebloodofthehorseshoecrab Borneo, the eggs of horseshoe crab are considered as a
J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 105 (3), Sep-Dec 2008 357