www.biotaxa.org/rce. ISSN 0718-8994 (online) Revista Chilena de Entomología (2021) 47 (2): 259-264.

Scientific Note

First record of Spotted Angle agama agama (Moore, 1858) (: Papilionoidea: Hesperiidae) from Bhoramdev Wildlife Sanctuary, Chhattisgarh,

Primer registro de agama (Moore, 1858) (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea: Hesperiidae) en el Santuario de Vida Silvestre de Bhoramdev, Chhattisgarh, India

Gaurav Nihlani1 , Faiz Bux2* and A.M.K. Bharos3

1Member Chhattisgarh Wildlife Society, Gayatri Nagar, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. 2 Research Scholar, Dept. of Botany, Govt. D.B.G.P.G. (Auto.) College, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. *[email protected]. 3State Co- Ordinator, IBCN (BNHS) and AWC (Wetland International), Chhattisgarh, B-101, Gayatrinagar, Raipur, 492007, Chhattisgarh, India.

ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:03AEFAE1-24CF-43FF-B178-ED8FE88E7CB9 https://doi.org/10.35249/rche.47.2.21.13

Abstract. Caprona agama agama (Moore, 1858), was never reported from central India, whilst it has been reported earlier from Himalayan foothills, North-east India, and South India. This sighting thus reports the first record of C. agama agama from Chhattisgarh (India) and will add up to the lepidopteran fauna of the state.

Key words: Monsoon; new addition; skippers; Satpuda-Maikal landscape.

Resumen. Caprona agama agama (Moore, 1858), nunca fue vista en el centro de la India, mientras que previamente fue registrada en las estribaciones del Himalaya, en el noreste y sur de la India. Por lo tanto, este avistamiento es el primer reporte de C. agama agama en Chhattisgarh (India), incorporándola a la fauna de lepidópteros del estado.

Palabras clave: Monzón; nueva adición; paisaje de Satpuda-Maikal; saltarines.

Bhoramdev Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS), district Kabirdham, Chhattisgarh, India (Fig. 1) was named after the famous temple Bhoramdev built-in 11th Century. The sanctuary forms a part of Central Indian highlands located in the verges of Satpura hill range forming the Satpuda-Maikal landscape. It came into existence in the year 2001. It is located between 80°58’ E to 82°34’ E longitude and 21°57’N to 22° 15’ N latitude, at c.300-900 meters above mean sea level, with average annual rainfall is c. 1000 mm. The soil of the region is primarily of two types: Ultisol and Entisol (Basak and Ahmed 2016). Bhoramdev WLS is a significant protected area that shares its frontier with the Kanha-Achanakmar wildlife corridor of the Central Indian landscape. The forest type of the region is of four types: Southern Tropical Dry Deciduous Teak Forest (5A/C1b), Northern Tropical Dry Peninsular Deciduous Sal Forest (5B/C1c), Northern Tropical Dry Mixed Deciduous Sal Forest (5B/c2), and Dry Bamboo Brakes (5/E9) (Champion and Seth 1968). The forest vegetation is dominated by Sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn.) with other associated viz., Buchnania lanzan Spreng.,

Received 3 March 2021 / Accepted 4 May 2021 / Published online 31 May 2021 Responsible Editor: José Mondaca E.

Este es un artículo de acceso abierto distribuido bajo los términos de la licencia Creative Commons License (CC BY NC 4.0) Nihlani et al.: First record of Caprona agama agama (Moore) from Chhattisgarh, India.

Cassia fistula L., Diospyros melanoxylon Roxb., Sterculia urens Roxb., Terminalia chebula Retz., Terminalia tomentosa Wight & Arn., including herbs like Achyranthus aspera L., Convolvulus arvensis L., Cassia tora L., Ocimum basilicum L. (Jhariya and Oraon 2012; Basak and Ahmed 2016). belong to the order Lepidoptera. They are regarded as the primary component of the forest ecosystem (Rosenberg et al. 1986) so it draws good attention. Popularly known as ‘Skippers’ the Hesperiids butterflies get this term due to their short jerky flight (ZSI 1997). Caprona agama agama (Moore, 1858) (Spotted Angle) is one of the six species (Vane-Wright and de Jong 2003; GBIF Secretariat 2019) of the Caprona Wallengren, 1857. It has been reported from Karnataka (Palot and Radhakrishnan 2013), including east-Maharashtra to Jharkhand and southward to ; Uttarakhand to North- east India (Varshney and Smetacek 2015), also from Alagar Hills, Tamil Nadu (Pradeepa and Kumar 2017). It has never been reported from central India, either Chhattisgarh (Singh and Chandra 2002; Sisodia 2019) or Madhya Pradesh (Chandra et. al. 2007, 2014). A visual encounter survey (Caldas and Robbins 2003) was conducted from 20th August to 19th September 2020, to assess the lepidopteran assemblage in selected pockets of Bhoramdev WLS. The survey was conducted by foot across Sakri river (a tributary of river Mahanadi), in compartment no. RF 68 and RF 77 resulted in new record sightings of the Caprona agama agama (Moore, 1858) butterfly to Chhattisgarh. The butterfly was photographed using a mobile camera and DSLR camera. The species-level identification was done by following available standard literature (Khemikar 2016; Varshney and Smetacek 2015; ZSI 1997).

Butterfly sighting accounts

The weather during the survey was hot (30 °C to 38 °C) and humid. It was monsoon period during the survey, even it rained for a few minutes during certain trail walks. The canopy cover was intermittently closed at some spots. The surrounding trees in the area were Bauhinia purpurea L., Buchanania lanzan, Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub., Cassia fistula L., Diospyros melanoxylon Roxb., Ficus benghalensis L., Ficus hispida L. fil., Gardenia turgida Roxb., Glochidion hohenackeri Bedd., Madhuca longifolia (J. Koenig ex L.) J. F. Macbr., Mangifera indica L., Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth., Shorea robusta Gaertn., Terminalia chebula Retz. and Terminalia tomentosa (Roxb. ex DC.) Wight & Arn. During the survey, a small-sized butterfly, with some white spots over its wings, was sighted over the leaf of Ocimum americanum L. plant for the first time, with open wings to which it was confused with the Indian ( galba (Fabricius, 1793)) butterfly. This assumption later went wrong after consulting the standard literature (Khemikar 2016), and we finally affirmed it to be Spotted Angle (Caprona agama agama) butterfly. The series of sighting accounts of the butterfly is stated in Table 1. Wherever we sighted the butterflies during our survey, the sky was clear intermittently and sunlight was prominent over the ground. Even when the butterflies were spotted under the canopy shade in lower strata of the forest, the sunlight was conspicuous from the gaps in between the canopy.

Identification characters. Skippers often tend to stay at the low level of the ground and not in the high canopy (Wynter-Blyth 1957). We too recorded the C. agama agama in the lower strata of the forest. The species we observed had dorsal dark brown surface with few translucent and white spots extending from the centre to the periphery wing apex. Hairy structure (grey and black) starting from thorax towards abdomen on the dorsal side. The observed approximate open wing span was ca. 5 cm. The identifying characters of the butterfly matched with the standard literatures (Khemikar 2016; Varshney and Smetacek 2015; ZSI 1997). 260 Revista Chilena de Entomología 47 (2) 2021

1 Figure 1. Study area of Bhoramdev Wildlife Sanctuary, Chhattisgarh, India. / Área de studio del Santuario de la Naturaleza Bhoramdev, Chhattisgarh, India.

Figures 2-5. Spotted Angle butterfly Caprona agama agama. 2. Over Ocimum americanum L. plant. 3. Spotted Angle butterfly and other butterflies involved in mud puddling 4. Spotted Angle butterfly and other butterflies involved in mud puddling. 5. Sitting over a wooden block. / Mariposa de ángulo manchado Caprona agama agama. 2. Sobre la planta Ocimum americanum L. 3. Mariposa de ángulo manchado y otras mariposas reunidas en charcos de barro. 4. Mariposa de ángulo manchado y otras mariposas reunidas en charcos de barro. 5. Posada sobre un trozo de madera. 261 Nihlani et al.: First record of Caprona agama agama (Moore) from Chhattisgarh, India.

Table 1. Spotted Angle butterfly (Caprona agama agama) sighting records at Bhoramdev WLS, Chhattisgarh, India. Trail / Date Approx. Locality Species encountered Remarks on Spotted Track length of angle butterfly the trail sightings 1 22.viii.2020 1 Km Compartment no. 68 Spotted angle (Caprona Spotted over Ocimum (22°06'24" N 81°08'33" agama agama) butterfly americanum L. plant leaf. E) (Fig. 2)

2 22.viii.2020 500 The right bank Spotted angle (Caprona The butterfly was sun meters of Sakri river, agama agama) butterfly basking over the leaves Compartment no. 68 of Ocimum americanum. (22°06'16" N 81°08'24" E) 3 22.viii.2020 1 Km The left bank of Sakri Spotted angle Was sitting along with river, Compartment (Caprona agama agama), Golden angle, Chestnut no. 77 (22°06'26" N one Golden angle angle and Staff sergeant 81°08'29" E) (Caprona ransonnetii), at the backyard of one Chestnut angle an abandon school ( angulata) building. and one Staff sergeant (Athyma selenophora) butterfly 4 22.viii.2020 1 Km Thavarjol village, Spotted angle (Caprona Sitting on the wall Compartment no. 77 agama agama), Lemon full of moisture of an (22°06'28" N 81°08'30" Pansy (Junonia lemonias) abandoned school E) building. 5 23.viii.2020 1 Km Thavarjol village, Spotted angle (Caprona Sitting on the wall of Compartment no. 77 agama agama), Great an abandoned school (22°06'29" N 81°08'35" Eggfly (Hypolimnas building, covered with E) bolina) Staff Sergeant blue-green algae. (Athyma selenophora), Commander (Moduza procris) 6 03.ix.2020 500 Sighted at a small Spotted angle (Caprona All the butterflies meters stream, Compartment agama agama), Zebra were involved in mud no. 77 (22°06'02" N Blue ( plinius) puddling. (Fig. 3) 81°08'09" E) and Common Pierrot ( rosimon) 7 03.ix.2020 700 Sighted on the other Spotted angle (Caprona On the leaf of Glochidion meters side of the small agama agama) butterfly hohenackeri (Müll. stream, Compartment Arg.) Bedd. tree, at no. 68 (22°05'45" N ca. 5 metres above the 81°07'28" E) ground. Sitting over the leaf, no activity noticed. 8 04.ix.2020 500 Thavarjol village, Spotted angle (Caprona All the butterflies meters Compartment no. 77 agama agama), Zebra were involved in mud (22°06'04" N 81°07'24" blue (Leptotes plinius) puddling. (Fig. 4) E) and Golden angle (Caprona ransonnetii) 9 04.ix.2020 500 Compartment no. 77 Spotted angle (Caprona One solitary butterfly meters (22°06'14" N agama agama) butterfly was sighted sitting on 81°07'19" E) a wooden block near a small stream. (Fig. 5) 262 Revista Chilena de Entomología 47 (2) 2021

10 05.ix.2020 500 Thavarjol village, Spotted angle (Caprona All the butterflies meters Compartment no. 77 agama agama), Golden were involved in mud (22°06'30" N angle (Caprona puddling, adjacent to a 81°06'58" E) ransonnetii), Zebra small stream. blue (Leptotes plinius) and Common Pierrot () 11 05.ix.2020 200 Compartment no. 68 Spotted angle (Caprona Sitting over a road- meters (22°06'27" N agama agama) and side milestone cement 81°06'37" E) Staff sergeant (Athyma block, which was selenophora) butterfly covered with Lichen.

This sighting was also reported in www.ifoundbutterflies.org by the first author. Hence, this is the first report of C. agama agama from the Central Indian landscape, Chhattisgarh. This shall be a new addition to the lepidopteran fauna of the Chhattisgarh state.

Acknowledgements

We are highly grateful to Dr. Krushnmegh Kunte, NCBS, Bangalore for the identification of the species. We also extend our gratitude and thanks especially to Mr. Dilraj Prabhakar, Div. Forest Officer, Kawardha, Mr. Devendra Gond, Range Officer, Bhoramdev WLS, Dr. Sonam Mishra, Veterinary Physician, Bhoramdev WLS, and frontline field staff of the forest department, who facilitated us during the survey.

Literature Cited

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