Appias cardena ( Hewitson, 1861 )

Kirti, Jagbir Singh, Kaur, Manpreet, Mishra, Purnendu & Shah, Suresh Kr., 2021, Short Communication New record of Appias cardena (Hewitson) of family Pieridae (Lepidoptera) from India, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 121 (1), pp. 195-199 : 196-199

Appias cardena ( Hewitson, 1861)

( Figures 1 , 2 A-I)

1861. Pieris cardena Hewitson, Illustrations of Exotic Butterflies: 33.

1867. Tachyris cardena : Wallace, Trans. Ent. Soc. London 504.

1873. Tachyris cardena : Druce, Proc. zool. Soc. London 355.

1885. Appias cardena : Distant, Rhopalocera Malayana : 316.

1895. Hyposcritia cardena : de Niceville, Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 504.

1910. Appias cardena : Frushtstrofer, Seitz Macrolepidoptera: 157.

1974. Appias cardena : Lewis, Butterflies of the World: 157, fig. 5.

Material examined: India: 1 ♂ , India, Sikkim, North Darjeeling, Rhenock (27° 10 ʹ 35.84 ʺ N, 88° 38 ʹ 35.52 ʺ E) altitude 1,040m, 3.ix.1959, 1 ♂, 6.ix.1959, leg. B.K. Tikader.

Diagnosis: Forewing upperside: White, forewing with narrow black costa reaching up to apex; the apical half black deeply indented inwardly; a heart-shaped spot is formed by one of the indentations; two white spots in the subapical region. Hindwing upper side with narrow black margin; terminal ends of the veins dark black, connected and forming continuous bands near the anal angle. Underside of forewing as above; the apex is grey beyond the band of white spots. Hindwing: white with yellow base and inner margin; discal cell is dusted with yellow; veins distinct and black; the outer margin broadly grey, bordered inwardly by a zigzag black line ( Figure 2 A-B).

Genitalia: Uncus acuminate laterally, slightly curved downwards; v-shaped dorsally, dorsal ridge well developed. Tegumen narrow, somewhat rectangular, slightly longer than uncus. Vinculum slightly incurved, slightly longer than tegument. Juxta v- shaped. Valve broad, rounded posteriorly, slender; interior process arched (near middle of ventral margin of costa + ampulla region) directed dorso-laterally. Aedeagus thick and strongly arched dorsally, basal prong andcoecum slender, subzone smaller than supra-zone, ductus ejaculatorius enters dorso-laterally ( Figure 2 C-I).

Known distribution until this study: Borneo (TL) ( Hewitson, 1861), Sumatra (Rusman et al., 2016), Malay Peninsula ( Ismail et al., 2018).

Discussion: So far, A. cardena was distributed in Sumatra ( D’Abrera, 1982) and Peninsular Malaysia (Ismail et al. 2017). The present discovery will fill up the distributional gap of the studied species from South East Asia to Indian mainland. A very less information has been published regarding Appias cardena and I found no data about its host plant but the larvae of the species belonging to the genus Appias feed on Capparis.

Acknowledgement

The authors are sincerely thankful to Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, for giving necessary facilities to carry out laboratory work.

Figures

Figure 1. Map showing known distribution of Appias cardena (Hewitson, 1861): The grey highlighted areas 1, 2 & 3 indicates its old distribution in Borneo, Sumatra and Malay Peninsula respectively. 4. indicates new distributional record of A. cardena from Sikkim.

Figure 2. A. Forewing, B. Hindwing, C. Male genetalia (without aedeagus), E. Male genetalia (lateral view) F. Valva, G. Uncus, H. Aedeagus, I. Vasica