PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton.

Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Note

Range extension of the Lilac Silverline Apharitis lilacinus to southern Rajasthan and a review of the literature

K.S. Gopi Sundar, Swat Kitur, Vijay Kumar Koli & Utkarsh Prajapat

26 June 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 9 | Pages: 16180–16182 DOI: 10.11609/jot.5800.12.9.16180-16182

For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact

The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors.

Member

Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2020 | 12(9): 16180–16182 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5800.12.9.16180-16182

#5800 | Received 23 February 2020 | Final received 29 April 2020 | Finally accepted 27 May 2020

N o t e Range extension of the Lilac Silverline Apharits lilacinus to southern Rajasthan and a review of the literature

K.S. Gopi Sundar 1 , Swat Kitur 2 , Vijay Kumar Koli 3 & Utkarsh Prajapat 4

1,2 Nature Conservaton Foundaton, 1311, “Amritha”, 12th Main, Vijayanagar 1st Stage, Mysuru, Karnataka 570017, . 3,4 Wildlife Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Sukhadia University, Udaipur, Rajasthan 313001, India. 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected]

The Lilac Silverline Apharits lilacinus ( org/observatons/38831801). Multple reviewers following Varshney & Smetacek 2015) is an exceedingly identfed the species as the Lilac Silverline, and we rare species of buterfy of the family too confrmed the identfcaton with buterfy experts (also referred to as “the blues” or “gossamer-winged and with photographs available on the world wide buterfies”) that was frst described in 1884 from a web. The specimen we photographed was a dry season specimen with unknown origin (Moore 1884). Litle is form with a part of one wing missing possibly due to a known of its ecology, distributon, and conservaton status predaton atempt (Image 1a). This is the frst record of in India. In this note, we describe a recent observaton of this buterfy species from the Aravalli Hills and is also the species that consttutes a range extension. We also the frst record from Rajasthan State (Sharma 2014; provide a thorough review of literature relatng to this Jangid et al. 2016). Careful observatons for this species species with the intent to collate dispersed informaton throughout the year will help to confrm if it is resident to develop a beter understanding of the ecological in the area or a seasonal visitor. requirements of the Lilac Silverline. Historic literature points to the Lilac Silverline always On 18 February 2020, during a visit to the southern being rare in locatons it has been recorded in. Early part of Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary in southern collectons of buterfies include a few specimens of Rajasthan, we spoted a lycaenid buterfy sunning the Lilac Silverline 40km from Rawalpindi, Pakistan in itself perched on a rock in an area that was severely November 1885 (described incorrectly as a new species degraded by catle grazing, with few scatered trees called Azanus uranus; Butler 1886), and from Mhow of Butea monosperma, Lannea coromandelica, Acacia in Madhya Pradesh (described as a new species called species, and Mallotus philippensis amid sparse Lantana Aphnaeus aestvus; Swinhoe 1886). Very small numbers camara (Image 1a,b). The buterfy sightng was of the species have also been collected from Kasauli <50m from a dried stream bed. We uploaded images (Himachal Pradesh), Malda (West Bengal), Bengaluru of the buterfy to the online repository iNaturalist. (Karnataka) and north Lakhimpur (Utar Pradesh) of both org as an unidentfed Lycaenidae (www.inaturalist. the wet and dry forms (Riley 1925). Observatons have

Editor: B.A. Daniel, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, Coimbatore, India. Date of publicaton: 26 June 2020 (online & print)

Citaton: Sundar, K.S.G., S. Kitur, V.K. Koli & U. Prajapat (2020). Range extension of the Lilac Silverline Apharits lilacinus to southern Rajasthan and a review of the literature. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(9): 16180–16182. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5800.12.9.16180-16182

Copyright: © Sundar et al. 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton.

Funding: No funding was received for this work.

Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests.

Acknowledgements: We thank R. Bhanumat, A.K. Firos, and S. Karthikeyan for several discussions, useful background informaton, and unpublished personal observatons. This observaton was made while on feld work towards understanding Sloth Bear ecology in southern Rajasthan. We thank the Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan for permits to work in Kumbalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary and staf for their assistance during the feld work.

16180 J TT Range extension of Lilac Silverline Sundar et al. been made of the species’ habits at Chandigarh (Punjab), September, and the species is resident in Bengaluru. Hardwar (Utaranchal), and at Palmaner in Chitoor Available informaton is therefore inadequate to District (; Wynter-Blyth 1957). These comment on the seasonality of the species in other early records point to the species being widespread but locatons. always sparse. A few observatons are available of the habitats More recent observatons of the Lilac Silverline have required by the Lilac Silverline. Wynter-Blyth (1957) been few but signifcant. The species was rediscovered notes that the species is scarce but widespread in open in Bengaluru afer a century by A.R. Nitn on 23 plains, scrubby hills, and in gram felds. Hesaraghata, December 2012 (de Nazareth 2013), and is now regularly where recent observatons of the species have been photographed throughout the year, at Hessarghata Lake made, is an urban wetland heavily disturbed by human with eggs and caterpillars indicatng that the locaton actvity (Sheshadri et al. 2013), and the recent sightng has a resident breeding populaton of the species in Chitoor is from an insttutonal campus (R. Bhanumat (Sheshadri et al. 2013; Sengupta et al. 2020). Another pers. comm. 2020). Our observaton of the Lilac Silverline photographic record was obtained for the frst tme in was from a heavily degraded part of the Kumbhalgarh northeastern India in May 2018 in Daying Ering Wildlife Wildlife Sanctuary (see Image 1). The observatons Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh (Kaman 2018). The Lilac collectvely suggest that the Lilac Silverline frequents a Silverline was also photographed on 25 September 2019 range of habitats, perhaps most commonly using areas from the Agastya Campus in Chitoor District, less than that experience human actvity, including low levels of 60km from Hesaraghata Lake in Bengaluru, consttutng urbanizaton, cropping, and catle grazing. The sightngs a rediscovery of the species in Andhra Pradesh (R. at Hesaraghata and our observaton at Kumbhalgarh Bhanumat pers. comm. 2020). The Agastya Campus has were made close to natural water sources suggestng been restored to a scrub-savanna mixture from fallow that this species is ofen found near surface water. felds, and only one sightng of the Lilac Silverline has It is fortunate that the Lilac Silverline is so widespread been made there despite multple years of observatons and appears to be compatble with several forms of for buterfies (R. Bhanumat pers. comm. 2020). human disturbance given the high protecton status of Both historic and current observatons match the the species (Schedule II of the Indian Wildlife Protecton distributon provided by Varshney & Smetacek (2015) Act 1972; Sengupta et al. 2020). In some locatons for the Lilac Silverline: “Gujarat to Karnataka; Himachal like Bengaluru, the rarity of this buterfy species has Pradesh to Assam”. Our record from Rajasthan adds to atracted photographers in large numbers whose the distributon range, and to existng conclusions that traversing of the habitat in vehicles indiscriminately the species is widespread in the Indian subcontnent appear to be destroying its host plant species in the (Wynter-Blyth 1957; Varshney & Smetacek 2015; only site where the species is confrmed to have a Sengupta et al. 2020). One-tme observatons have breeding populaton (Seshadri et al. 2013). Such been made across India in January, February, May, and uncontrolled actvites require to be curtailed to enable

© K.S. Gopi Sundar © Swat Kitur

a b

Image 1. a—the dry season form of the Lilac Silverline photographed in Kumbalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan on 18 February 2020 | b— the locaton where it was photographed looking toward the dried stream that fowed in the valley.

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2020 | 12(9): 16180–16182 16181 J TT Range extension of Lilac Silverline Sundar et al.

long-term persistence of the few known populatons Moore, F. (1884). Descriptons of some new Asiatc diurnal ; of this species. Additonal surveys in locatons such as chiefy from specimens contained in the Indian Museum, Calcuta. (Communicated by the Natural History Secretary). Journal of the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, especially including Asiatc Society of Bengal 53 Part II (1): 16‒52. locatons that have human presence and are not solely Riley, N.D. (1925). The species usually referred to the genus Cigarits Boisd. (Lycaenidae). Novitates Zoologicae 32: 70‒95. protected areas, are likely to help provide additonal Sengupta, A., R. Nitn, G.S.G. Kumar & V. Nagraj (2020). Apharits informaton on the habits and conservaton status of the lilacinus (Moore, 1884) – Lilac Silverline. In: Kunte, K., S. Sondhi Lilac Silverline. & P. Roy (eds.) Buterfies of India. v. 2.74. Indian Foundaton for Buterfies. Electronic version accessed 22 February 2020. htp:// www.ifoundbuterfies.org/sp/2125/Apharits-lilacinus References Sharma, G. (2014). Studies on Odonata and Lepidoptera fauna of foothills of Aravalli Range, Rajasthan. Records of the Zoological Butler, A. (1886). On lepidoptera collected by Major Yerbury in Survey of India, Occasional Papers No. 353: 1‒104. Western India. Proceedings of the Scientfc Meetngs of the Sheshadri, K.S., M.B. Krishna, S. Balakrishna, M.S. Kumar, B.S. Zoological Society of London 1886(3): 355‒395. Prabhakar, R. Nitn, S.B. Kishan, K.S. Vinay, G.S. Gautham, V. de Nazareth, M. (2013). A lilac lovely in the sky. The Hindu (Jan 18, Narayan, S. Potdar, P. Daga & T.P. Kumar (2013). Ruining the ecology 2013). Electronic version accessed 22 February 2020. htps:// of Hesaraghata Lake – the role of bird photographers. Electronic www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/a-lilac-lovely-in-the-sky/ version accessed 22 February 2020. htps://www.conservatonindia. artcle4319685.ece org/wp-content/fles_mf/small_Hesaraghata-Photographers.pdf Jangid, A.K., D. Yadav, D. Meena, V. Sharma & J.B.S. Kachhawa (2016). Swinhoe, C. (1886). On the Lepidoptera of Mhow, in Central India. Buterfies of Central Aravalli Ranges. Published by Centre for Proceedings of the Scientfc Meetngs of the Zoological Society of Advance Research and Development, Jaipur, India, ix+92pp. London 1886(4): 421‒465. Kaman, P. (2018). Rare buterfy species spoted in DEWS. Arunachal Varshney, R.K. & P. Smetacek (2015). A Synoptc Catalogue of the Times (May 28, 2018). Electronic version accessed 22 February Buterfies of India. Buterfy Research Center, Bhimtal and Indinov 2020. htps://arunachaltmes.in/index.php/2018/05/28/rare- Publishing, , 261pp. buterfy-species-spoted-in-dews/ Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957). Buterfies of the Indian Region. Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay, India, 523pp.

Threatened Taxa

16182 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2020 | 12(9): 16180–16182

PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. OPEN ACCESS All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton.

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

June 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 9 | Pages: 15967–16194 Date of Publicaton: 26 June 2020 (Online & Print) www.threatenedtaxa.org DOI: 10.11609/jot.2020.12.9.15967-16194

Communicatons DNA barcode reveals the occurrence of Palearctc Olepa schleini Wit et al., 2005 (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctinae) from peninsular India with morphological variatons Dusky Langurs Trachypithecus obscurus (Reid, 1837) (Primates: Cercopithecidae) in and a new subspecies Singapore: potental origin and conficts with natve primate species – Aparna Sureshchandra Kalawate, Shital Pawara, A. Shabnam & K.P. Dinesh, Pp. 16143– – Andie Ang, Sabrina Jabbar & Max Khoo, Pp. 15967–15974 16152

A new report on mixed species associaton between Nilgiri Langurs Semnopithecus johnii Present status of the genus Sphrageidus Maes, 1984 (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: and Tufed Grey Langurs S. priam (Primates: Cercopithecidae) in the Nilgiri Biosphere Lymantriinae) from India Reserve, Western Ghats, India – Amritpal Singh Kaleka, Devinder Singh & Gagan Preet Kour Bali, Pp. 16153–16160 – K.S. Chetan Nag, Pp. 15975–15984 Early stages of Nilgiri Grass Yellow Eurema nilgiriensis (Yata, 1990) (Lepidoptera: A review of the bacular morphology of some Indian bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) Pieridae), with a note on its range extension in the part of the Western Ghats, – Bhargavi Srinivasulu, Harpreet Kaur, Tariq Ahmed Shah, Gundena Devender, Asad Gopi, India Sreehari Raman & Chelmala Srinivasulu, Pp. 15985–16005 – Balakrishnan Valappil & V.K. Chandrasekharan, Pp. 16161–16165

Status of the Critcally Endangered Bengal Florican Houbaropsis bengalensis (Gmelin, 1789) in Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, Nepal Notes – Hem Sagar Baral, Tek Raj Bhat, Sailendra Raj Giri, Ashok Kumar Ram, Shyam Kumar Shah, Laxman Prasad Poudyal, Dhiraj Chaudhary, Gitanjali Bhatacharya & Rajan Amin, Breeding site records of three sympatric vultures in a mountainous clif in Kahara- Pp. 16006–16012 Thathri, Jammu & Kashmir, India – Muzafar A. Kichloo, Sudesh Kumar & Neeraj Sharma, Pp. 16166–16169 Observatons on breeding behaviour of a pair of endangered Egyptan Vultures Neophron percnopterus (Linnaeus, 1758) over three breeding seasons in the plains of Punjab, India First distributon record of Elongated Tortoise Indotestudo elongata (Blyth, 1853) – Charn Kumar, Amritpal Singh Kaleka & Sandeep Kaur Thind, Pp. 16013–16020 (Reptlia: Testudines: Testudinidae) from Bihar, India – Arif, Sourabh Verma, Ayesha Mohammad Maslehuddin, Utam, Ambarish Kumar Mall, Additons to the cicada (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadidae) fauna of India: frst report and Gaurav Ojha & Hemkant Roy, Pp. 16170–16172 range extension of four species with notes on their natural history from Meghalaya –Vivek Sarkar, Cuckoo Mahapatra, Pratyush P. Mohapatra & Manoj V. Nair, Pp. 16021–16042 The niche of shrimp stocks (Xiphopenaeus kroyeri Heller, 1862) from southeastern Brazil: a stable isotope approach The perceptons of high school students on the habitat of the crab Ucides cordatus – Keltony de Aquino Ferreira, Leandro Rabello Monteiro & Ana Paula Madeira Di (Linnaeus, 1763) (Crustacea: Decapoda: Ucididae) in northern Rio de Janeiro State, Benedito, Pp. 16173–16176 southeastern Brazil – Laiza Fernanda Quintanilha Ribeiro, Laura Helena de Oliveira Côrtes & Ana Paula Madeira First record of the White Tufed Royal deva lila Moore, [1884] (Lepidoptera: Di Benedito, Pp. 16043–16047 Lycaenidae: ) from Himachal Pradesh, extending its known range westwards – Sanjay Sondhi, Pp. 16177–16179 Woody species diversity from proposed ecologically sensitve area of northern Western Ghats: implicatons for biodiversity management Range extension of the Lilac Silverline Apharits lilacinus to southern Rajasthan and a – M. Tadwalkar, A. Joglekar, M. Mhaskar & A. Patwardhan, Pp. 16048–16063 review of the literature –K.S. Gopi Sundar, Swat Kitur, Vijay Kumar Koli & Utkarsh Prajapat, Pp. 16180–16182 Resolving taxonomic problems in the genus Ceropegia L. (Apocynaceae: Asclepiadoideae) with vegetatve micromorphology A record of gynandromorphism in the libellulid dragonfy Crocothemis servilia (Insecta: – Savita Sanjaykumar Rahangdale & Sanjaykumar Ramlal Rahangdale, Pp. 16064–16076 Odonata) from India – R.V. Renjith & A. Vivek Chandran, Pp. 16183–16186 A checklist of angiosperm fora of low elevaton lateritc hills of northern Kerala, India – K.A. Sreejith, V.B. Sreekumar, P. Prashob, S. Nita, M.P. Prejith & M.S. Sanil, Pp. 16077– Carcass consumpton by Nasuttermes callimorphus (Blatodea: Isoptera) in highland 16098 forests from Brazil – Igor Eloi, Mário Herculano de Oliveira & Maria Avany Bezerra-Gusmão, Pp. 16187– Phytodiversity of chasmophytc habitats at Olichuchatam Waterfalls, Kerala, India 16189 – Arun Christy & Binu Thomas, Pp. 16099–16109 New records of nasutform termite (Nasuttermitnae: Termitdae: Isoptera) from Contributon to the macromycetes of West Bengal, India: 51–56 Meghalaya, India – Diptosh Das, Entaj Tarafder, Meghma Bera, Anirban Roy & Krishnendu Acharya, – Khirod Sankar Das & Sudipta Choudhury, Pp. 16190–16192 Pp. 16110–16122

Corrigendum Short Communicatons Correctons to A citzens science approach to monitoring of the Lion Panthera leo Catalogue of herpetological specimens from peninsular India at the Sálim Ali Centre for (Carnivora: Felidae) populaton in Niokolo-Koba Natonal Park, Senegal Ornithology & Natural History (SACON), India – Dimitri Dagorne, Abdoulaye Kanté & John B. Rose, Pp. 16193–16194 – S.R. Ganesh, S. Bhupathy, P. Karthik, G. Babu Rao & S. Babu, Pp. 16123–16135

Osteological descripton of Indian Skipper Frog Euphlycts cyanophlycts (Anura: Dicroglossidae) from the Western Ghats of India – Pankaj A. Gorule, Sachin M. Gosavi, Sanjay S. Kharat & Chandani R. Verma, Pp. 16136– Publisher & Host 16142

Member

Threatened Taxa