www.biotaxa.org/rce. ISSN 0718-8994 (online) Revista Chilena de Entomología (2021) 47 (2): 253-258. Scientific Note New distribution record of Indian Tortoiseshell Aglais caschmirensis aesis (Fruhstorfer, 1912) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) from the state of Assam, India Nuevo registro de distribución de Aglais caschmirensis aesis (Fruhstorfer, 1912) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) del estado de Assam, India Debaprasad Sengupta1 ,2 , Subhasish Arandhara2 and Puja Deb2 1Bansbari Pathar, Dibrugarh- 786001, Assam, India. 2Department of Zoology & Wildlife Biology, A.V.C. College (Autonomous), Mannampandal- 609305, Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, India. debaprasad. [email protected] ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:5FBE5E7E-71A8-4309-B21C-1E9B4E811D35 https://doi.org/10.35249/rche.47.2.21.12 Abstract. Opportunistic sightings of Aglais caschmirensis aesis were recorded for the first time (on two different occasions) from Dibrugarh city in the state of Assam with new elevation records (109 and 113 m) from the north-eastern region of India. Key words: Butterfly; Dibrugarh; Jokai Reserve Forest; Northeast India; Tea Estate. Resumen. Los avistamientos de Aglais caschmirensis aesis se realizaron por primera vez (en dos ocasiones diferentes) en la ciudad de Dibrugarh en el estado de Assam con nuevos registros de elevación (109 y 113 m) en la región noreste de la India. Palabras clave: Mariposa; Dibrugarh; Reserva Forestal de Jokai; Tea Estate; noreste de India. North-eastern region of India comprises of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, and Northern parts of West Bengal (Choudhury 2004) and is one of the richest biodiversity zones of India which harbors around 64% of the total butterfly species reported from India (Joshi & Dhyani 2014). Butterflies are important components of biodiversity and are ecologically important due to the role they play in the food chain of a forest ecosystem (Mac Nally & Fleishman 2004) and acts as a pollinator (Kunte 2000; Tiple et al. 2007), biological indicators (Tiple 2007; Sengupta 2021) of environmental variation and quality, and have significant conservation value (Sawchik et al. 2005). A change in their distribution and abundance may be an early warning towards changing habitat patterns, degradation of environmental qualities of that particular region or areas and ultimately towards alteration of climatic conditions (Mandal 2016). The total number of butterfly species observed from the Indian region is about 1,504 (Tiple et al. 2006), out of which about 962 species belonging to five families and sub families were described from Northeast India alone, which belongs to six families (Papilionidae, Pieridae, Lycaenidae, Riodinidae, Nymphalidae and Hesperiidae) (Gupta & Shukla 1988; Joshi & Dhyani 2014). Research works on butterfly fauna of North Eastern region has been carried out by Received 3 April 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) Sengupta et al.: New distribution record of Aglais caschmirensis aesis (Fruhstorfer) from Assam, India. Wood-Mason and De Nice’ville (1886), Evans (1932), Cantlie (1952), Varshney & Chanda (1971) and Haribal (1992), who published a list of butterflies including all families from different parts of this region. In Assam, documentation of butterflies has been carried out by Saikia et al. (2010), Choudhury and Ghosh (2009), Bora & Meitei (2014), Mudai et al. (2015), Gogoi (2013a, 2013b, 2015), Neog (2015), Singh (2015, 2017), Singh et al. (2015), Choudhury (2020) and Bohra & Purkayastha (2021). The Indian Tortoiseshell The genus Aglais Dalman, 1816 is represented by three species in India namely Indian Tortoiseshell Aglais caschmirensis (Kollar, 1844) is distributed from Jammu & Kashmir to Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand to Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, the distribution of Ladakh Tortoiseshell Aglais ladakensis (Moore, 1878) ranges from Jammu & Kashmir to Sikkim and Mountain Tortoiseshell Aglais rizana (Moore, 1872) is distributed along Jammu & Kashmir to Sikkim (Varshney & Smetacek 2015). In India, the species Aglais caschmirensis (Kollar, 1844) is represented by two subspecies; Aglais caschmirensis caschmirensis (Kollar, 1844) which is a western subspecies known from the Kashmir Valley to Kulu (Himachal Pradesh) (Varshney & Smetacek 2015) and Aglais caschmirensis aesis (Fruhstorfer, 1912) distributed through Uttarakhand to eastern and Northeastern India (Kehimkar 2008; Varshney & Smetacek 2015). In the North-eastern region A. c. aesis has been reported from Arunachal Pradesh (Greeshma 2010; Sondhi & Kunte 2016), Manipur (Irungbam et al. 2017), Meghalaya (Imam & Kharkongor 2019), Nagaland (Naro 2012), Sikkim (Chettri et al. 2018) and Northern parts of West Bengal (Roy et al. 2012). 1 Figure 1. Indian Tortoiseshell Aglais caschmirensis aesis (Fruhstorfer, 1912) (upperwing view) at Jalan Tea Estate, Dibrugarh, Assam, India. / Aglais caschmirensis aesis (Fruhstorfer, 1912) (vista superior) en Jalan Tea Estate, Dibrugarh, Assam, India. 254 Revista Chilena de Entomología 47 (2) 2021 Observation and significance On January 11, 2021 at 1145 h, a single individual of A. c. aesis (Fig. 1) was recorded from Jalan Tea Estate (27.4843°N 94.9321°E; elev. 109 m) at Dibrugarh, Assam, India. The species was observed for around 6 minutes before it flew away. On February 20, 2021 at 1624 h, another individual was recorded from the Jokai Reserve Forest (27.3794°N, 94.9233°E; elev. 113 m) at Dibrugarh, Assam, India. The morphological characteristics were not recorded as the individuals were not captured and the identification of the species is done by photographic documentation followed by cross checking in Evans (1932) and Kehimkar (2008). These observations of A. c. aesis from the state of Assam, in the north-eastern region of India, confirm the presence of this species in the state and thus provide the first photographic evidence of A. c. aesis from Assam, India (Fig. 2). According to published literature (Fig. 3), A. c. aesis is restricted to an elevation range of 209-2546 m in the North- eastern region. This observation of A. c. aesis also indicates an unusual low elevation record (which is 109 m) form Assam and thus from the north-eastern region of India. 2 Figure 2. Locations of Aglais caschmirensis aesis from the North-eastern region of India. The green circles indicate the first record of A. c. aesis from Assam. The blue triangles are the locations of A. c. aesis derived from online sources (Vallapil & Kunte 2021) and published articles (see Fig. 3) to map the distribution of the species in the North-eastern region of India. / Ubicación de Aglais caschmirensis aesis en el noreste de la India. Los círculos verdes indican el primer registro de A. c. aesis de Assam. Los triángulos azules son las ubicaciones de A. c. aesis derivada de fuentes en línea (Vallapil & Kunte 2021) y artículos publicados (ver Fig. 3) para mapear la distribución de la especie en el noreste de la India. 255 Sengupta et al.: New distribution record of Aglais caschmirensis aesis (Fruhstorfer) from Assam, India. 3 Figure 3. Elevation records of Aglais caschmirensis aesis (Fruhstorfer, 1912) from the North-eastern region of India. / Registros de elevación de Aglais caschmirensis aesis (Fruhstorfer, 1912) en el noreste de la India. Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank Jatishwor Singh Irungbam, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic for identification of the species and K.K. Nilesh, A.V.C. College (Autonomous), Mannampandal, Tamil Nadu for providing necessary literature. Literature Cited Bohra, S.C. & Purkayastha, J. 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