Ypthima cantliei- a four-ringed butterfly belonging to Satyrinae butterfly family with most members in China has resurfaced in India after 61 years.
Key points
- The great four-ring was photographed during a survey to document the butterfly diversity in the Miao range of the Namdapha National Park during 2018-19. It was identified based on general morphological patterns and habitat.
- It was last reported in 1957 from (eastern) Assam’s Margherita, 61 years before our documentation.
- Ypthima is considered a rich genus of the family Nymphalidae which has some 6,000 species of butterflies.
- Of the 35 Ypthima species recorded in India, 23 have been reported from the northeast.
- The great four-ring has dull brown-grey wings with three yellow-ringed single eye spots (ocelli) on its hind wing and a large bi-pupilled apical ocellus obscurely ringed with yellow on the forewing above.
Namdapha
- Namdapha, straddling 1,985 sq. km. of Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district, is India’s easternmost tiger reserve bordering Myanmar.
- The park has an elevation ranging from 298.7 metres above the mean sea level to 4,498.8 metres.
- Arunachal Pradesh has more than 600 of the 1,327 species of butterflies recorded in India so far.
