Colias fieldii Ménétriés, 1855 Dark Clouded Yellow

Roy, Ripon Chandra, Biswas, Dipto & Dey, Rajib, 2021, Addition of Colias fieldii Ménétriés, 1855 (Lepidoptera: Pieridae: Coliadinae) to the checklist of Lepidoptera of Bangladesh, Revista Chilena de Entomología (Rev. Chil. Entomol.) 47 (2), pp. 433-436 : 434-435

Colias fieldii Ménétriés, 1855 Dark Clouded Yellow

The present study was conducted in Birganj upazila (25°48’ to 26°03’ North Latitude and 88°29’ to 88°43’ East Longitude), which is under Dinajpur district of northwestern Bangladesh ( Fig. 1 ). Dinajpur district is bounded by Thakurgaon and Panchagarh districts in the north, Gaibandha and Joypurhat districts in the south, Nilphamari and Rangpur districts in the east, and Uttar Dinajpur and Dakshin Dinajpur district of West Bengal, India in the west. The total area of the district is 3,437 square kilometers. The authors regularly carried out field surveys in heterogeneous landscapes of the district like riverside, pondside, grasslands, rural roads, paddy fields and semi evergreen forest areas from April 2020 to March 2021. During this expedition, Ripon Chandra Roy sighted and photographed an individual of this species at Mahadebpur (25°55’21” N, 88°37’29” E) using Redmi 8 mobile phone at 2:58 pm (GMT+6.00) on 31.iii.2021. The Pierid ( Fig. 2 ) was nectaring on Clerodendrum infortunatum L. Later , the photographs were compared with Ek-Amnuay (2012), and keys characterized by Talbot (1939). C. fieldii is quite similar to C. erate , but can be distinguished by its salmon-pink border on underside of both forewings and hindwings ( Talbot 1939). In addition, discocellular black spot is centered with small silvery white dot on underside of forewings ( Ek-Amnuay 2012). In underside of hindwings, conspicuous double silvery spots are encircled by the diffused salmon-pink ring (Evans 1932).

Current known distribution until this study. The global distribution of the taxon is in South Iran, India to Myanmar, North Thailand, Laos and North Vietnam ( Inayoshi 2021). Previously the species has been recorded from Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal ( Sinha et al. 2019). Subsequently, this species recorded from the Dinajpur district of Bangladesh (aerial distance: ~ 130 km from Buxa Tiger Reserve). So, the appearance of this distinctive species in the aforementioned study site is not very unusual ( Dey et al. 2020). However, this new finding gives an insight into its distribution range and habitat in the northwestern part of Bangladesh.

Figures

Figure 1. New locality record of Colias fieldii in Bangladesh/ Nuevo registro de localidad de Colias fieldii en Bangladesh.

Figure 2. The current sighting of Colias fieldii nectaring on Clerodendrum infortunatum L./ Avistamiento de Colias fieldii libando néctar en una flor de Clerodendrum infortunatum L.