Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2020 | 12(3): 15385–15386
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5578.12.3.15385-15386
#5578 | Received 25 November 2019 | Finally
accepted 30 January 2020
First record of the hawkmoth Theretra lycetus (Cramer,
1775) (Sphingidae: Macroglossinae)
from Bhutan
Sangay Nidup
1 & Jatishwor Singh Irungbam
2
1 Ministry of Agriculture and
Forest, Department of Forest and Park Services, Wangdue
Forest Territory Division, Wangdue Range Office, Wangdue Phodrang 14001, Bhutan.
2 Institute of Entomology, Biology Center CAS, Branisovská 1160/31
CZ-37005, České Budějovice,
Czech Republic; Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovská 1760, CZ-37005, České
Budějovice, Czech Republic.
1 sanzellsom@gmail.com, 2 jatishwor.irungbam@gmail.com
(corresponding author)
Editor: Ian J. Kitching, Natural History
Museum, London, U.K. Date of publication: 26 February 2020
(online & print)
Citation: Nidup, S & J.S. Irungbam (2020). First record
of the hawkmoth Theretra lycetus (Cramer, 1775) (Sphingidae:
Macroglossinae) from Bhutan. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(3): 15385–15386. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5578.12.3.15385-15386
Copyright: © Nidup
& Irungbam 2020. Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Grant Agency, University of South Bohemia (GA JU 038/2019/P), Czech
Republic.
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The first author is thankful to
the staff of Wangdue Forest Range for their encouragement
and support on the documentation of moths in the region. The second author is
thankful to Grant Agency, University of South Bohemia (GA JU 038/2019/P), for
support during the preparation of the manuscript.
The genus Theretra Hübner [1819]
comprises small to medium sized, nocturnal hawkmoths belonging to subfamily Macroglossinae, tribe Macroglossini,
subtribe Choerocampina (Kawahara et al. 2009). The adults of this genus feed mainly on
nectar from flowers and are frequently attracted to light (Bell & Scott
1937). Of the 58 species reported from
the Indian subcontinent, seven species have been recorded from Bhutan: T. alecto (Linnaeus, 1758), T. clotho
(Drury, 1773), T. nessus (Drury, 1773), T. oldenlandiae (Fabricius,
1775), T. silhetensis (Walker, 1856), T. tibetiana Vaglia & Haxaire, 2010 (Irungbam & Irungbam 2019), and T. sumatrensis
(Joicey & Kaye, 1917) (Lam Norbu, pers comm.). In the present paper we report the sighting
of Theretra lycetus
(Cramer, 1775) from Bajo Town, Wangdue Phodrang of central Bhutan.
Theretra lycetus was described by Pieter Cramer as Sphinx lycetus (Cramer, 1777), but the species was later
transferred to the genus Theretra by Kirby
(1892). It has been recorded from Nepal,
southern & northeastern India, the Andamans, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand,
Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia
(https://mol.org/species/map/Theretra_lycetus).
The species is easily identified by the pale longitudinal double lines
on the upperside of the abdomen becoming indistinct
posteriorly, the darker pinkish-brown forewing upperside
with strong postmedial lines and intervening pale bands, the hindwing upperside with a reddish medial band of variable width, and
outer row of forebasitarsal spines with additional
spines.
A single specimen of Theretra lycetus
was photographed (Image 1) on the evening of 14 May 2019, at 18.10h, on the
wall of the Wangdue Forest Range Office, Bajothang Town (27.4861 N, 89.8977 E; 1,216m) in Wangduephodrang District, Bhutan (Figure 1). The surrounding vegetation is dominated by an
invasive small perennial shrub, Lantana camara L.
(family Verbenaceae) and the wider area is cultivated
with plants of family Vitaceae, which is one of the
larval food plant families of Theretra lycetus. The
specimen was subsequently identified by first author referring to Inoue et al.
(1997) and then confirmed by Jean Haxaire, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France, through a social media
communication (23 May 2019).
Previous studies on the
Sphingidae fauna of the Indian subcontinent have
reported the presence of this species, from the eastern Himalaya, southern
India, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar (Bell & Scott 1937), and Mahakali,
Nepal (Kishida 1998), but the studies conducted by
Dudgeon (1898) in Sikkim and Bhutan did not record the species from
Bhutan. Dierl
(1975) reported 10 species of Sphingidae; Irungbam & Kitching (2014) reported 27 species of Sphingidae from Tsirang District;
and Geilis & Wangdi
(2017) reported 63 species of Sphingidae mainly from
the studies conducted in eastern Bhutan, but none of these studies recorded T.
lycetus.
The latest updated checklist of the Sphingidae
published by Irungbam & Irungbam
(2019) includes 93 species from Bhutan but not T. lycetus. New records of Sphingidae,
however, continue to accrue for the country.
Clanidopsis exusta
(Butler, 1875) and Langia zenzeroides (Moore, 1872) were reported for the first
time from Bhutan only in 2019 (Jamtsho & Irungbam 2019; Irungbam & Norbu 2019). Thus,
the present sighting of T. lycetus in Bajothang, Wangduephodrang of
central Bhutan is significant and important and confirms the presence of the
species in central part of the Himalaya.
For
figure & image - - click here
References
Bell,
T.R.D. & F.B. Scott (1937).
The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Moths, Vol. 5, Sphingidae. Taylor and Francis, London. xviii, 537pp.,
15pls.
Cramer,
P. (1777). Uitlandsche Kapellen (Papillons exotiques). Uitl. Kapellen.
2(9–16): 1–152, pls 97–192.
Dierl, W. (1975). Ergebnisse der Bhutan-Expedition 1972 des Naturhistorischen
Museums in Basel, einige familien
der “bombycomorphen” Lepidoptera. Entomologica
Basiliensia 1: 119–134 [in German].
Dudgeon,
G.C. (1898). A catalogue of the
Heterocera of Sikkim and Bhutan, part 2. Journal
of the Bombay Natural History Society 11(2): 406–419.
Gielis, C. & K. Wangdi (2017). A Field Guide to the Common Moths of Bhutan.
National Biodiversity Centre (NBC), Thimphu, 100pp.
Irungbam, J.S. & I.J. Kitching (2014). A first record of Clanis
hyperion Cadiou and
Kitching, 1990 (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) in Bhutan,
and a preliminary checklist of the hawkmoths of Mendrelgang,
Bhutan. Journal of Threatened Taxa 6(1): 5386–5388. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3399.5386-8
Inoue,
H., R.D. Kennett & I.J. Kitching (1997). Moths of Thailand (Sphingidae),
Vol. 2. Brothers of St.
Gabriel in Thailand, Chok Chai Press, Klong San,
Bangkok, 149pp, Colour plts.
44.
Irungbam, J.S. & M.S. Irungbam
(2019). Contributions to the
knowledge of moths of Bombycoidea Latreille,
1802 (Lepidoptera: Heterocera) of Bhutan with new
records. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(8): 14022–14050. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4358.11.8.14022-14050
Irungbam, J.S. & L. Norbu (2019). A new country record of Langia
zenzeroides zenzeroides
Moore, 1872 (Sphingidae: Smerinthinae)
from Bhutan. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 116: 22–24.
Jamtsho, K. & J.S. Irungbam
(2019). White-streaked
Hawkmoth: report on the range extension of Clanidopsis
exusta (Butler, 1875) from Bhutan. Bugs R All
#170, Zoo’s Print 34(3): 19–23.
Kawahara,
A.Y., A.A. Mignault, J.C. Regier,
I.J. Kitching & C. Mitter (2009). Phylogeny and biogeography of hawkmoths
(Lepidoptera: Sphingidae): evidence from five nuclear
genes. PLoS ONE 4(5): e5719.
Kishida, Y. (1998).
Sphingidae, pp. 40–42. In: Haruta,
T. (ed.). Moths of Nepal, Part 4. Tinea Vol. 15 (Supplement 1). The
Japanese Heterocerists’ Society, Tokyo, xviii,
206pp., 97–128pls.
Kirby,
W.F. (1892). A synonymic
catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera (Moths). Sphinges and Bombyces
Syn. Cat. Lepid. Het. 1 : 1-951.