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) Short Communication Observations on butterflies of non-protected areas of Titabar, Assam, India Abhijit Konwar & Manashi Bortamuly 26 April 2021 | Vol. 13 | No. 5 | Pages: 18364–18377 DOI: 10.11609/jot.4126.13.5.18364-18377 For Focus, Scope, Aims, and Policies, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/aims_scope For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/policies_various For reprints, contact <[email protected]> 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 April 2021 | 13(5): 18364–18377 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) OPEN ACCESS htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4126.13.5.18364-18377 #4126 | Received 04 October 2019 | Final received 22 March 2021 | Finally accepted 08 April 2021 SHORT COMMUNICATION Observatons on buterfies of non-protected areas of Titabar, Assam, India Abhijit Konwar 1 & Manashi Bortamuly 2 1Department of Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservaton, North Orissa University, Baripada, Odisha 757003, India. 2 Department of Zoology, Nanda Nath Saikia College, Titabar, Assam 785630, India. 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected] Abstract: This paper depicts the result of two years study from 2014 2017) in upper Assam. Along with the protected areas to 2016 in non-protected areas on buterfies of Titabar (26.588 N & (PA), other non PAs like diferent forests and village 94.187 E), Assam, India. During the study period, a total of 158 species of buterfies distributed in six families were recorded, out of which 29 woodlands of Assam also provide habitat for diferent belong to the family Hesperiidae, 17 to Pieridae, 11 to Papilionidae, 38 buterfy species. But due to anthropogenic pressures to Lycaenidae, two to Riodinidae, and 61 to Nymphalidae. Fourteen ‘rare’ species were recorded during the survey as per Evans (1932) these non PAs are declining in number thus afectng tny such as Athyma ranga, Arhopala paraganesa, Caltoris cormasa, and creatures like buterfies. Appias nero. This indicates the importance of the study and the Doubleday (1865) worked on the buterfies of need for conservaton of buterfies of non-protected area of Titabar subdivision in upper Assam. Jorhat District. Recently, Singh et al. (2015) and Neog (2015) listed the buterfies of Gibbon WS which is the Keywords: Conservaton, diversity, Jorhat District, Lepidoptera, only PA of Titabar subdivision, and Bhuyan et al. (2005) northeastern India, species. documented the buterfies of the Regional Research Laboratory Campus of Jorhat. Again Saikia et al. Upper Assam, a biodiversity rich zone of the (2014) studied the buterfy diversity of the Sericultural northeastern region is well known for buterfies, having Training Insttute Campus of Titabar and Duta (2013) over 400 species of which 1/3rd are endemic and 1/7th recorded 40 species from Titabar Town area. Our study are protected under various schedules of the Wildlife hasn’t included the Gibbon WS. Emphasis has been (Protecton) Act 1972 in India (Singh 2017). Notable made to document the buterfy diversity of non PAs works have been done in Panbari Reserve Forest (RF), of Titabar subdivision to show the signifcance of non Kaziranga-Karbi hills (Gogoi 2013b, 2015), Jeypore RF, PAs especially in upper Assam and their importance in Dehing-Patkai (Gogoi 2013), Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary buterfy conservaton in the region. (WS) (Singh et al. 2015), Dangori RF (Boruah & Das 2017), and foodplains of Dibru Soikhuwa NP (Das et al. Editor: Monsoon J. Gogoi, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India. Date of publicaton: 26 April 2021 (online & print) Citaton: Konwar, A., M. Bortamuly (2021). Observatons on buterfies of non-protected areas of Titabar, Assam, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(5): 18364– 18377. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4126.13.5.18364-18377 Copyright: © Konwar & Bortamuly 2021. 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: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to the Principal and Head of the Department of Zoology of N.N. Saikia College for their kind permission for the feld work. The authors are partcularly thankful and grateful to Monsoon Jyot Gogoi, Bitupan Baruah and Gaurab Nandi Das for their help in identfying the species. Special thanks to Anshuman Gogoi, Alok Phukan, Kalyan Gogoi and Rantu Ranjan Konwar for their constant support during the feld work and also to the Coordinator and staf of the Insttutonal Biotech Hub of N.N. Saikia College, Titabar for providing weather and climate data of the study area. And fnally we like to thank Ratnesh Karjee for helping in map preparaton. 18364 Buterfies of non-protected areas of Titabar, Assam Konwar & Bortamuly J TT Figure 1. Map of Titabar subdivision showing the study locatons. Methods Sericultural Training Insttute (26.592 N & 94.172 E), Study Area Bebejia (26.586 N & 94.173 E), Kachari Gaon (26.595 N Titabar subdivision (26.588 N & 94.187 E) is located & 94.175 E), Kasojan (26.58 N & 94.17 E), Mejenga Grant in Jorhat District of Upper Assam. To the north of (26.597 N & 94.164 E), Bekajan (26.384 N & 94.162 E), Titabar lies the Jorhat subdivision, the south is bordered Panjan (26.495 N & 94.21 E), Jalukonibari (26.645 N & by Nagaland, Sivasagar District is located in the east, 94.188 E), Rangajan (26.646 N & 94.223 E). and the west is bordered by Golaghat District. Titabar subdivision consists of two revenue circles: Titabar and Survey methods Mariani. The alttude of Titabar is 172m above sea level, The survey of buterfy species was conducted in while the average temperature ranges from 17–28°C, the all the major seasons, i.e., pre-monsoon, monsoon, average humidity is in the range of 66.5–89.9% and the post-monsoon, and winter. The survey involved annual rainfall of the study area is 250cm. The climate walking through diferent sites and visual search and here is humid in summer and dry and cold in winter. photography were conducted on diferent forest trails, Titabar has one wildlife sanctuary, the Hollongapar hill streams, village woodlands, grasslands, croplands, Gibbon WS under Mariani revenue circle. The survey and tea gardens between 08.00 and 14.00 hr from May was conducted in 10 diferent places in Titabar-Nanda 2014 to June 2016. Some species were also recorded Nath Saikia College Campus (26.588 N & 94.177 E), in the early mornings and evenings. The species were Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 April 2021 | 13(5): 18364–18377 18365 J TT Buterfies of non-protected areas of Titabar, Assam Konwar & Bortamuly photographed with a digital camera whenever possible. Table 1. Overview of taxonomic diversity of buterfies of the Titabar Identfcaton of all encountered buterfies was subdivision. Number of Number of Number of done to the species level. Though a few species were Family identfed in the feld, most of the species were identfed subfamily genera species Nymphalidae 10 (43.47%) 38 (35.18%) 61 (38.60%) from digital images taken with the camera in the feld. The identfcaton of buterfies was done by using the Papilionidae 1 (4.34%) 4 (3.70%) 11 (6.96%) identfcaton guides of Watson (1897), Evans (1932), Pieridae 2 (8.69%) 9 (8.33%) 17 (10.75%) Kehimkar (2008), research papers of Gogoi (2013b), Lycaenidae 6 (26.08%) 30 (27.77%) 38 (24.05%) Gogoi (2015), and Singh et al. (2015). No buterfies were Riodinidae 1 (4.34%) 2 (1.85%) 2 (1.26%) caught with net or other equipment for identfcaton. Hesperiidae 3 (13.04%) 25 (23.14%) 29 (18.35%) TOTAL: 6 23 (100%) 108 (100%) 158 (100%) Results and Observations During the study period, a total of 158 species of buterfies were identfed belonging to six families Doleschallia bisaltde, and Iraota tmoleon. Twenty- from the non PAs of Titabar subdivision. Out of the 158 two species found during the study are protected under species identfed, Nymphalidae showed the maximum various schedules of the Indian Wildlife (Protecton) Act, species richness, comprising 38.60% with 61 species, 1972 (Schedule I—1 species, Schedule II—17 species, followed by Lycaenidae 24.05% with 38, Hesperiidae Schedule IV—4 species); however, results indicate poor 18.35% with 29, Pieridae 10.75% with 17, Papilionidae habitat of buterfies in non PAs of Titabar as only 11 6.96% with 11, and Riodinidae 1.26% with two species papilionids were recorded during the survey whereas (Table 1, 2). 19 species of papilionids were recorded by Singh et al. Twenty species found during the survey are new (2015) from Gibbon WS.