Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2022 | 14(8): 21745–21748

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7846.14.8.21745-21748

#7846 | Received 24 January 2022 | Final received 05 July 2022 | Finally accepted 20 July 2022

First record of Xanthia (Cirrhia) icteritia (Hufnagel, 1766) (Noctuidae: Xyleninae) from India

Muzafar Riyaz ¹ & K. Sivasankaran ²

^1,2 Division of Taxonomy & Biodiversity, Entomology Research Institute, Loyola College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600034, India.

¹ bhatmuzaffar471@gmail.com, ² ganesh_swamy2005@yahoo.com (corresponding author)

Editor: Jatishwor Singh Irungbam, House of Nature - Sphingidae Museum, Pribram, Czech Republic. Date of publication: 26 August 2022 (online & print)

Citation: Riyaz, M. & K. Sivasankaran (2022). First record of Xanthia (Cirrhia) icteritia (Hufnagel, 1766) (Noctuidae: Xyleninae) India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(8): 21745–21748. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7846.14.8.21745-21748

Copyright: © Riyaz & Sivasankaran 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: None.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Acknowledgements: The authors wish to thank the Entomology Research Institute, Loyola College, Chennai, for extended support and guidance. The first author would like to thank Iqra Jan and Sumaira Riyaz for their assistance in insect collection and Idea Wild (United States) for providing field equipment.

Xanthia Ochsenheimer, 1816 is a genus of moth belong to the family Noctuidae and often tabbed with a common name ‘Swallow’. Xanthia Ochsenheimer, 1816 is the synonym of the genus Cirrhia Hübner, 1821. Poole (1989) included Xanthia Billberg, 1820; Cirrhia Hübner, 1821; Citria Hübner, 1821; Mellinia Hübner, 1821; Euthemonia Gistl, 1848; and Tiliacea Tutt, 1896 as junior synonyms of Xanthia Ochsenheimer, 1816. Ronkay et al. (2001) combined the genus Xanthia with the genus Cirrhia Hübner and treated them as subgenera of Xanthia.

In the present study, we report the presence of Xanthia (Cirrhia) icteritia in Union territory of Jammu & Kashmir, India. A single male Xanthia (Cirrhia) icteritia (Image 1) was photographed and collected on 20 September 2021 in Tehsil Herman, district Shopian of Kashmir Division (Union territory of Jammu & Kashmir), at 1,596 m (33.705⁰N, 74.940⁰E) (Image 1). The specimen was identified based on the morphological and genitalia characters provided in the published literature: Hampson (1894), Parrack & Bay (1986), Mehl & Thiele (1995), Lafontaine & Mikkola (2003), Saldaitis et al. (2011), Sivasankaran et al. (2011), Tarauş & Okyar (2016), Sanyal et al. (2018), Kovtun (2019), and Dar et al. (2020).

The wingspan of individual is 3.7 cm (Image 2) with forewing pale yellow and slightly hooked. The costal end of the median shade, and the subbasal costal blotch prominently dark brown; the dark blotch at base is reniform with a pale centre; the fringe yellow; head and shoulders pale yellow; hindwing whitish: an irregular diffuse median fascia between median and postmedian lines; a subterminal costal blotch; a dotted subterminal line and a faintly outlined oval (Image 3).

The genitalia of the specimen was prepared using KOH in 135°C by clearing the apex of the abdomen for several minutes. The abdomen was transferred to glycerin for further examination after rinsing the KOH with distilled water. After examination, we observed the well-developed, medium and slender uncus of the male genitalia of the species. Tegumen broad, bearing prominent penicula. Juxta shield shaped. Valvae elongated and slender, sclerotized; clasper and ampulla also well sclerotized; corona moderately developed. Vinculum V-shaped. Aedeagus stout, vesica bearing a large scobanate cornutus and a micro cornuti (Image 4). The collected specimen along with its genitalia is deposited in the museum of the Division of Taxonomy and Biodiversity at the Entomology Research Institute, Loyola College Chennai, India with specimen voucher number ERIB-KMR-272.

Major tree species around the site were Populus deltoides, Juglans regia, Robinia pseudoacacia, Ulmus sp., Salix sp., and Malus sp. (Riyaz et al., 2021).  The temperature was recorded as 25ºC and the habitat mostly consists of agricultural lands with annual precipitation of 660 mm and average temperature of 13ºC (Riyaz & Reshi 2021).  

Xanthia (Cirrhia) icteritia (Hufnagel, 1766), is distributed across Europe to Central Asia including Japan and Korea (GBIF Secretariat 2021). In Europe, Xanthia (Cirrhia) icteritia is very common in United Kingdom and adjoining countries except for the furthest south (https://ukmoths.org.uk/species/cirrhia-icteritia/adult/).

Based on the previous observations with similar habitats, the authors propose a tentative area of occurrence for this species to the entire area of Kashmir and northern parts of Jammu division of the Union territory of Jammu & Kashmir in India. The authors expect the possibility of the species to occur in northern parts of Pakistan. The IUCN Red List assessment of this species on the GeoCAT website based on the present identification, type locality and two other possible locations showed the species to be Least Concern with extent of occurrence of 2,449,522.018 km². This record is significant and important, as it constitutes the first proven evidence of the occurrence of Xanthia (Cirrhia) icteritia Hufnagel, 1766 (synonym of Xanthia icteritia Hufnagel, 1766) in the Indian subcontinent making it a notable range extension for the species into the political boundary of India.

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References

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