Animesh,
Awesome. I am going to be spending some time over the next two years
surveying the butterflies of Eaglenest and surrounds and will keep my
eyes open for this one!
Rgds
Sanjay Sondhi
TITLI TRUST
+91 9412052189
Dehradun
On 14-Aug-10, at 1:34 PM, Animish Mandrekar wrote:
Hi Group,
Indeed this is good news for all of us.
My trip 2008 Trip to Arunachal Pradesh was very eventful. We (Myself
and Shasank Dalvi) were stuck at Nameri Eco Camp for more than a
week due to heavy cloudburst in Arunachal. The road from Bhalunkpong
to Tenga was jammed due to heavy landslides which was finally
removed by military. On our way to Eaglenest we could count more
than 50 Landslides in a stretch of 86 Kms.
The Insect and Bird activity was very low as compare to my earlier
trip to this place in 2007. We reasoned it to be the torrential
rains which had swept the entire forest floor. Heavy rains are not
new to this place but this was real bad. In our trip we noticed
forest activity was good in low altitude as compared to the mountains.
On our way back, one sunny afternoon of 12th Nov 2008, I saw a brown
coloured butterfly mud puddling at Lama Camp with unusual twisting
at it rear wings. I could manage to take few shot before it
disappeared.
Thank to KK for taking time out of his busy schedule and identifying
it. Below are his comment:
the name of your species is Arhopala curiosa, for which i have
coined the english name, Curio Oakblue. i just made its entry in my
Catalog of Indian Butterflies:
"E. Himalaya. Previously known only from a single female (type
specimen), which was collected from Dokyong La, Bhutan, at 3,000m
asl on 1927/03/25 by F. M. Bailey (Evans 1957). Recently, a specimen
was photographed mud-puddling at the Lama Camp (27º08.48'N &
92º27.23'E; 2,350m asl) in Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in W.
ArunachalPradesh, adjacent to Bhutan, in the second week of Nov.
2008, by Animish Mandrekar. This seems to be the only other record
known of the species. This species has an unusual wing shape for an
Arhopala and d'Abrera (1986) has remarked that it looks rather
similar to members of Mahathala."
Happy Butterflying,
--
Animish Mandrekar
Address: 304, Dattatray Bhavan,
Eksar Road, Borivli (West),
Mumbai-400 103
Tel.: (022) 28914101
Email: [email protected]
<Arhopala curiosa.jpg><Arhopala curiosa Close up.JPG>
--
Enjoy
