24-05-2025
SE Asian clearwing moth recorded for first time in India at Buxa
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Kolkata: A clearwing moth species first spotted in Myanmar in 2004 and later sighted in South China, Vietnam, and Malaysia has now been recorded at the Buxa Tiger Reserve in north Bengal.
This is the first record of the moth and the genus, Scoliokona, in India.
Nature Mates founder Arjan Basu Roy and Titli Trust founder trustee Sanjay Sondhi spotted the clearwing moth in 2022 near Jayanti village along a stream, Gue Nullah, that flows into the Jayanti river in the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR). The discovery occurred during a butterfly diversity project at BTR from 2018 to 2022.
"We initially thought it was a wasp, but on closer inspection with binoculars, Sanjay realised it was a moth.
Since it was unlike anything we saw in India before, we netted it for future reference," recounted Basu Roy.
After completing the project in Buxa, they examined the specimen and began referencing material on moths. That is when they suspected it could belong to the genus Scoliokona, recorded by lepidopterists Axel Kallies and Yutaka Arita in the Philippines in 1998. The species they recorded was named after the duo as Kallies & Arita, 1998.
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However, Basu Roy and Sondhi were unsure. After preparing the specimen and photographing the upper side, underside, and lateral view of it with the head close-up as well as the genitalia, they approached Prof Kallies for confirmation.
After studying the photographs, Kallies confirmed that the moth was indeed from the genus Scoliokona, and the species is one named after him. A scientific note was subsequently published in Tropical Lepidoptera Research to record the first confirmed record of the species Scoliokona Kallies in India.
It is also the first record of the genus Scoliokona from India. Tropical Lepidoptera Research is a full-colour journal published twice a year by the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera at McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, US.
'This is the extension of the western boundary of the moth species found in South-East Asia. The genus Scoliokona was first spotted in the Philippines in 1968 but described by Kallies and Arita three decades later.
The species recorded in Buxa is one among 15 species to be recorded in the South-East Asian region, with its type locality from Myanmar," said Basu Roy.
"The first record of this genus from India shows how little we know about moths in India. Moths are important pollinators and play a crucial role in nature. We need to protect their habitats and continue to document our biodiversity. Loss of habitat, increased light pollution, and use of pesticides are looming anthropogenic threats faced by moths in India," says Sondhi.
The pinned specimen is currently at the Biodiversity Lab Research Collections at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bengaluru.
