Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2022 | 14(3): 20798–20800
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7802.14.3.20798-20800
#7802 | Received 24 December 2021 | Final
received 07 March 2022 | Finally accepted 14 March 2022
First record of Doherty’s Dull Oakblue Arhopala khamti Doherty, 1891 from upper Assam, India
Arun Pratap Singh
Entomology Branch, Forest
Protection Division, Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248006,
India.
Editor: Monsoon J. Gogoi,
Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India. Date
of publication: 26 March 2022 (online & print)
Citation: Singh, A.P. (2022). First record of Doherty’s Dull Oakblue Arhopala khamti Doherty, 1891 from upper Assam, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(3): 20798–20800. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7802.14.3.20798-20800
Copyright: © Singh 2022. 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: Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education.
Competing interests: The author declares no competing interests.
Doherty’s Dull Oakblue Arhopala khamti Doherty,
1891 is distributed from Sikkim through Assam, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos,
Vietnam, and Hainan (China) and is considered a ‘rare species’ (Evans 1932; Inayoshi 1996–2022). It is identified and differentiated
from its congener Hewitson’s Dull Oakblue
A. oenea (Hewitson,
[1869]) in having black tornal lobe with prominent green scales on under
hindwing, absent in the latter (Evans 1957) (Image 1a&b). Additionally, A. khamti
is dark blue purple with a 0.5 mm border from upper side, while A. oenea being violet blue with 1.5 mm border (Image 1c).
Otherwise, both the species superficially look alike and have an overlapping
distribution range in northeastern India, and
sometimes considered ecological subspecies, being seen together in northeastern India (Evans 1957; Inayoshi
1996–2022). However, A. oenea also occurs
further west in the Himalaya up to Uttarakhand through Nepal (Evans 1932;
Wynter-Blyth 1957; Smith 2006; Gasse 2013; Kehimkar 2016) and is protected under Schedule II, Wildlife
Protection Act 1972 (Anonymous 2006). Specimens of A. khamti
have been collected from Sikkim and Assam (India) and Chittagong (Bangladesh) (Gasse 2013). There
are recent records of A. khamti from Pakke Tiger
Reserve (13 October 2013 & 28 September 2018) and Namdapha
National Park (04 March 2014) in Arunachal Pradesh (Anonymous 2021). Besides,
it has also been reported from Barail Wildlife
Sanctuary in Cachar hills in southern Assam (Gogoi et al. 2016).
During random sampling surveys carried out on 01
October 2021 in Shibari (26.7926N & 94.6737E;
~180m; Image 2), near Nazira, Shivasagar
district, Assam, India the author recorded at least six individuals of the
species. The habitat was the middle and understory of semi-evergreen forest in
remnant forest patches in between tea gardens and paddy fields along the
homesteads of upper Assam. The habitat was shared with Centuar
Oakblue, Arhopala centaurus pirithous (Moore,
[1884]) which was quite common in the area. This the first authentic record of
this species from upper Assam as there are no previous records from this area
in published literature or museum specimens (Doherty 1889; Bettes
1950; Gogoi 2013, 2015; Singh et al. 2015; Neog 2015; Bourah & Das 2017;
Konwar & Bortamuly
2021). The location of the current record bridges the gap along the Patkai hills in its distribution range, as the present
record lies in between Cachar hills in southern Assam
and Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh. The affinity of
this species with the Indo-Burma hotspot highlights the importance of these
remnant forest patches of upper Assam which still harbor
these rare species of conservation priority.
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