LIFE HISTORY of CHIONAEMA COCCINAE RECORDED from DEHRADUN, UTTARAKHAND Parthasasrthy, N., and Sethi, P
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644 The Indian Forester [July Indian Forester, 139 (7) : 645-647, 2013 ISSN No. 0019-4816 (Print) http://www.indianforester.co.in ISSN No. 2321-094X (Online) Nilsson, C., and Grelsson, G. (1995). The fragility of ecosystems: a review. Journal of Applied Ecology, 32: 677–692. LIFE HISTORY OF CHIONAEMA COCCINAE RECORDED FROM DEHRADUN, UTTARAKHAND Parthasasrthy, N., and Sethi, P. (1997). Trees and lianas species diversity and population structure in a tropical dry evergreen forest in south India, Tropical Ecology, 38: 19–30. ABESH KUMAR SANYAL, V.P. UNIYAL* AND KAILASH CHANDRA1 Pauline, R., Sundarapandian, S., Chandrasekaran, S., Swamy, P.S., and Rajan, P. (1996). Vegetation structure and regeneration potential of a deciduous forest at Alagar Hills Madurai, Environmental Ecology, 14: 182–188. Wildlife Institute of India, P.O. Box-18, Chandrabani, Dehradun 248 001, Rai, S.N. (1985). Effect of biotic pressure on regeneration and composition of moist deciduous forests in Karnataka. Van Vigyan, 23: 13–22. Uttarakhand, India ([email protected]) Sabogal, C. and Valerio, L. (1998). Forest composition, structure and regeneration in a dry forest of the Nicaraguan pacific coast. In: Forest *Email: [email protected] Biodiversity in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean: Research and Monitoring. (Dallimeier, F., Comiskey, J.A., Eds.), The Parthenon Publishing Group, New York, pp. 187–212. ABSTRACT Sahu, P.K., Sagar, R., and Singh, J.S. (2008). Tropical forest structure and diversityin relation to altitude and disturbance in a Biosphere Life history stages of the Arctiid moth Chinaema coccinae, Moore, 1878 (Subfamily Lithosiinae) were recorded in reserve in Central India. Applied Vegetation Science, 11: 461-470. Wildlife Institute of India campus, Dehradun. Larva, pupa and cocoon structure along with male female dimorphism Sankar, K. (1994). Painted Spurfowl Galloperdix lunulata Valeciennes Sariska National Park, Rajasthan. Journal of Bombay Natural History were described. The cocoon along with the pupa were kept upto emergence of the adult to confirm species Society, 90(2): 289 identification. Sankar, K., and Qureshi, Q. (2009). Annual Report, Sariska National Park: 48-57 Key Words: Cyana, Larva, Cocoon, Host plant, Moth, Life cycle Sankar, K., Qureshi Q., Nigam, P., Malik, P.K., Sinha, P.R., Mehrotra, R.N., Gopal, R., Bhattacharjee, S., Mondal, K., and Gupta, S. (2010). Monitoring of reintroduced tigers in Sariska National Park, Western India: preliminary findings on home range, prey selection and Introduction as the host-plant, e.g. perhaps many of the records in food habits. Tropical Conservation Science, 3 (3): 301-318. Members of the genus Chionaema Older name: Yunus and Ho (1980) and Zhang (1994). But it is apparent Saravanan, S.S. (2004). Wildlife Techniques Tour Journal, Wildlife Institute of India, pp. 3 -9. Cyana (Order: Lepidoptera, Suborder: Heterocera, (Common, 1990) that feeding on higher plants is rare in Selvan, K.M., (2006). Studies on the patterns of abundance and diversity of the bird community of Southern Western Ghats, Kerela, M. Sc. Family: Arctiidae, Subfamily: Lithosiinae) belong to the the group, but noted particularly in the species C. Dissertation, pp. 44 - 45. tribe Nudariini (Holloway, 2001) and are represented by coccinae where four species of trees are recorded as its’ Shahabuddin, G., and Kumar, R., (2006). Influence of anthropogenic disturbance on bird communities in a tropical dry forest: role of twenty-two species in Indian subregion (Hampson, larval host plants from India (Robinson et al., 2010): vegetation structure, Animal conservation 9, The Zoological Society of London: 404 - 413. 1894). The species C. coccinae Moore, has been recorded Camellia sinensis (Theaceae), Dalbergia sissoo Shi, H. and Singh, A. (2002). An assessment of biodiversity hotspots using Remote Sensing and GIS. Journal of the Indian Society of Remote from Sikkim and Western Himalaya within Indian (Leguminosae), Shorea robusta (Dipterocarpaceae) and Sensing, 30(1 and 2): 105-112. subregion. Outside India, it is recorded from Nepal, Tectona grandis (Verbenaceae), where withered or living Shibuya, M., Yajima, T., Kawai, Y., Watanabe, N. and Nishikawa, K., (1997). Recovery process and dynamics of the number of stems of major China, Thailand and Vietnam. The species is around 53 foliage may be eaten. So far there were no records about tree species in a deciduous broad leaved forest in the 40 years after a large scaledisturbance by a typhoon. Journal of the Japanese mm in size, head and collar ochreous, the latter fringed larval morphology or other life history stages of this Forest Society, 79: 195–201. with crimson; thorax and abdomen crimson; the anal tuft species. Nor this species were recorded in very large scale Simpson, G.G., (1964). Species diversity of North American recent mammals. Systematic Zoology, 13: 57–73. ochreous. Wings are dark crimson; forewing with some from Sal forest elsewhere. In the month of September Singh, K.P., and Misra, R., (1978). Structure and Functioning of Natural, Modified and Silvicultural Ecosystems in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Final black subbasal specks; a broad excurved antemedial and October, 2011 this species was observed in profusion Technical Report (1975–1978). band; an incurved submarginal band with dentate outer around Dehradun, Uttarakhand, emerging from eggs Singh, L., Singh, K.P., and Singh, J.S. (1992). Biomass, productivity and nutrient cycling in four contrasting forest ecosystems in India. In: edge. In the male, presence of some sort of secondary deposited previous year. Tropical Ecosystems: Ecology and Management. (Singh, K.P., Singh, J.S., Eds.), Wiley Eastern Limited, New Delhi, pp. 415–430. sexual feature between the discal part of the cell and the Material and Methods Smith, I.K. and Vankat, J.L., (1992). Dry evergreen forest (Coppice) communities of North Andros Island Bahamas. Bulletin of Torrey Botanical Club, 119: 181–191. costa is perhaps the most consistent feature for the The measurement of larva, pupa and adult moth genus. Strong transverse red, orange or yellow fasciation Yadav, A.S., and Gupta, S.K., (2006). Effect of micro-environment and human disturbance on the diversity of woody species in the Sariska were taken by Vernier callipers with inch and millimetre Tiger Project in India. to the forewings and spotting in the discal area is also graduations. The adult, larval and pupal morphology part of the generic ground plan. In C. coccinae, males are were observed under light microscope (Olympus, Japan). with three black spots in the cell and female with two. Results and Discussion There is also considerable size difference between male and female, with the females slightly larger in size and In the late August, 2011 millions of caterpillar of colour little lighter. The larvae of the genus Cyana have Chionaema coccinae were observed descending to the mostly been recorded as feeding on most groups of lower ground with the aid of some long threads of silk from plants: lichens, algae, mosses and liverworts (Holloway, overhanging tree branches of sal (Shorea robusta). The 2001). They tend to graze on these wherever they are caterpillars were around 22 mm, generally dark or abundant, such as on moist walls, cliffs and rocks, the marbled blackish brown or blackish grey, with groups of trunks and branches of trees and, in very humid biotopes, long black setae on verrucae. Within eight to ten days on leaves. The last locations may frequently have led they underwent some major transformations through them to be associated with the tree or plant concerned, three-four instars, the size tending to increase and also and the identity of this gets propagated in the literature the length of the setae. The final instar (Fig.1a), just Life cycle of Arctiid moth (Chinaema coccinae) including its larva, pupa and cocoon along with sexual dimorphison has been described. 1Zoological Survey of India, Head Quarter, Prani Vigyan Bhawan, New Alipore, Kolkata-700008 ([email protected]) 646 The Indian Forester [July 2013] Life history of Chionaema coccinae recorded from Dehradun, Uttarakhand 647 females). The specimens were subsequently retained as Outbreak of the species was also recorded from Rajaji voucher specimens and later deposited to the Zoological National Park, Uttarakhand. The species is reported as Survey of India, Head Quarter, Kolkata. serious defoliator of tea plants from Malaysia. It is also The females, right after emerging from the cocoon reported from Northern Thailand to visit flowering teak mated with males and started depositing eggs on the (Tectona grandis L.f.) canopies and thus acting as a vertical wall surface (Fig.1g). The eggs were tiny white, potential pollinator of the teak (Tangmitcharoen, et al., slightly oval in shape (around 0.04 mm in diameter), laid 2006). The subfamily Litosiinae as a whole has acted as a in cluster of around 184-224 in one batch. They were promising candidate as indicator species in response to arranged in 4-5 rows in an inverted club-head shape. mild level of disturbance. The survey of lowland Again after 3-4 days the first instar larva (Fig.1h) started softwood plantations by Chey (1994), Intachat et al. emerging from the eggs. The next day onward they (1997) in Borneo showed that many Cyana/Chionaema started to disperse from their site of emergence and species can persist in these managed systems, some within next two days, around last week of September, becoming quite abundant, they even persisted in areas completely disappeared from the site. Any next instar disturbed by cycles of shifting cultivation. Thus the was never seen again and they went probably in winter species, Chionaema coccinae with well described life hibernating mode. history stages and host plants recorded, is a potential candidate as an indicator in rapid habitat assessment in The remarkable life history of this species was Western Himalayan foothills where all the four species of previously not published from any part of the world.