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Volume 51, Number 3

273

NIELSEN, M. C. 1970. New Michigan butterfly records. J. Lepid. Soc. 24:42-47. PERKINS, O. A. 1968. Addenda to the list of the butterflies of Michigan. J. Lepid. Soc. 22:119-120.

Owen A. Perkins, 2806 Linwood, Royal Oak, Michigan 48073-3023, USA.

Received for publication 18 February 1997; revised and accepted 5 April 1997.

journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 51(3), 1997, 273-275

REDISCOVERY OF LETHE EUROPA TAMUNA WITH NOTES ON

OTHER THREATENED BUTTERFLIES FROM THE ANDAMAN AND

NICOBAR ISLANDS

Additional key words: Legal protection, status reassessment.

Drawing on data from the IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) (1987) listed six species of butterflies as threatened from the Indian coastal region. Four of these—one species and three subspecies—are endemic to the Andaman and Nicobar islands (Table 1). Three of these taxa have been termed "very rare" while Graphiurn eparninondas Oberthur was termed "locally common" by both Evans (1932) and Ferrar (1948). Khatri (1996) recently reported that two of these taxa, Lethe europa taniuna de Niceville and Neptis sankara nar de Niceville, were extirpated on these islands. We present here new information on three of the four taxa rated "threatened" from the Andaman and Nicobar islands, including biological notes on the rediscovery of Lethe europa taniuna.

Lethe europa tamuna de Niceville (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae). This is one of the rarest butterflies from the islands, being known previously from a single female specimen collected on Little Nicobar. Ferrar (1948) reported observing another female on Great Nicobar some time before he left the islands in 1931. On a collecting trip to Great Nicobar Island in December ] 996, the senior author observed four females, and found two eggs and two larvae of this butterfly at three localities in the Campbell Bay area of Great Nicobar. Both the adults and immatures were found along roadsides where the forests had been disturbed by human activity. One of the females was seen resting on moist sand on the banks of a stream. Another female was observed ovipositing on the upper surface of a leaf of the climbing bamboo, Dinochloa andamanica Kurz. Eggs were laid on leaves well within the clump, not on the fringes. The larvae (Fig. IB) were sleeved and observed periodically for about two weeks. They fed and passed through several instars, and confirmed D. andamanica as a host plant that supports development. We suspect this butterfly is not as rare as previously thought, but its status can be reliably assessed only after further studies are conducted.

Doleschallia bisaltide andamana Fruhstorfer (Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae). This butterfly has been considered rarer in the Nicobars (Car and Central Nicobar) than in the Andaman islands (Evans 1932, Ferrar 1948). Its cryptic habits have perhaps contributed to an underestimate of its abundance. We have observed eggs, larvae and adults of this butterfly at S. Andaman and at Great Nicobar. The larvae completed their life cycles on the plants on which they were found, when sleeved (see Table 1). We found from 15 to 58 adults feeding on the small white blossoms of medium sized trees of Ligustrum glomera-tum Blume (Oleaceae) at Chidyatapu (Fig. ID) in S. Andaman in 1994, 1995 and 1996. At Campbell Bay on Great Nicobar, 16 eggs were observed on P. album (Nees) Merr. (located in less than 30 min of search); 3 females were also observed in flight.

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Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society

Table 1. Threatened species of butterflies for the South Asian Seas region from the data base of the IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP 1987). Status represents ratings by Evans (1932) and Ferrar (1948); IUCN categories are as defined prior to Mace & Lande (1991) and Mace & Stuart (1994). All except Graphium epaminondas are listed as Schedule I species in the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 as revised to 1991.

Graphium

epaminondas S. Asia Andamans

not rare, insuffi- Uvaria rufa Bl. locally          ciently (Annonaceae)

common known

Graphium epaminondas Oberthur (Papilionidae: Papilioninae). Although this butterfly was among the first collected from the islands (Hewitson 1874), nothing was known about its biology until its larval host plant and life cycle were worked out (Prashanth Mo-hanraj & Veenakumari 1994). It has a very short flight period with adults on the wing between April and June (Prashanth Mohanraj & Veenakumari 1996). It is localized in its distribution on S. Andaman. Mount Harriet National Park and some other localities on S. Andaman continue to support good populations of the butterfly, but we consider it has declined in abundance from the earlier reports by Evans (1932) and Ferrar (1948). The species is not currently threatened though some of its breeding localities have been destroyed (Prashanth Mohanraj & Veenakumari 1996).

Neptis sankara nar de Niceville (Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae). About half a dozen historical specimens of this species have been collected from the Andaman islands (Ferrar 1948). No specimens have been collected recently, and we have not encountered the species in our studies. If the butterfly is confined to N. Andaman (where Ferrar spotted his only specimen) then we may well have missed this species on our short, sporadic visits to the island. We doubt the species is extirpated, as N. Andaman is far less disturbed than S. Andaman.

Over one fourth of the butterflies of the Andaman and Nicobar islands have been rated as "rare" or "very rare" by Ferrar (1948), the only person to have collected diligently for as long a period as eight years from these islands. Given the relative paucity of data, we feel that until more detailed field studies on Andaman and Nicobar butterflies are conducted, statements about the status of the islands' species should be made with caution.

We are grateful to A. K. Bandyopadhyay, Director, C.A.R.I., for supporting us in our studies on the natural history of the butterflies of these islands. We thank P. V Sreekumar, Botanical Survey of India, Port Blair for the identification of the plant specimens, and Bikas Mondal, Tamil Das and Kinnu Ram for patient and cheerful assistance in the field. Permission to study insects from the National Parks and Sanctuaries of these islands was granted by the Chief Wildlife Warden, Andaman and Nicobar islands (Order No. CWLW/WL/47/1294). We also acknowledge financial assistance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, New Delhi (Order No. 14/44/91-MAB/RE).

Volume 51, Number 3

275

Fig. 1. Lepidoptera from Andaman and Nicobar Islands: A, adult Lethe europa tamuna; B, larva of Lethe europa tamuna; C, the strikingly different larva of Lethe europa nudgara (ssp. tamuna is confined to the S. Nicobars while ssp. nudgara is restricted to the Andamans); D, Doleschallia bisaltide andamana feeding on a blossom of Ligustrum glom-eratum Blume.

Literature Cited

Evans, W. H. 1932. The identification of Indian butterflies (2nd revised Ed.). Bombay Natural History Society. Diocesan Press, Madras, pp. x + 454, xxii pis.

Ferrar, M. L. 1948. The butterflies of the Andamans and Nicobars. J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc. 47:470-491, 5 pis.

HEWITSON, W. C. 1874. A list of butterflies, with descriptions of new species, from the Andaman islands. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) xiv:356-358.

Khatri, T C. 1996. Butterflies of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands: conservation concerns. J. Res. Lepid. 32:170-184.

Prashanth Mohanraj & Veenakumari, K. 1994. The larval food plant and life history of Graphium (Pathysa) epaminondas Oberthur—a papilionid endemic to the Andaman islands. Butterflies 7:24—34.

----------. 1996. Host plants, phenologies and status of swallowtails (Papilionidae), Lepidoptera, in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean. Biol. Conserv. 78:215-221.

UNEP, 1987. Environmental problems of the South Asian Seas region: an overview. UNEP Regional Seas Reports and Studies, No. 82. United Nations Environment Programme. pp. ii + 50.

K. Veenakumari and Prashanth Mohanraj, Central Agricultural Research Institute, P. B. No. 181, Port Blair 744 101, Andamans, India

Received for publication 16 April 1997; revised and accepted 21 July 1997.