Butterflies of the Families Acraeidae, Satyridae, Nymphalidae, Riodinidae and Lycaenidae, (Lepidoptera) from Arunachal Pradesh and Adjoining Areas, India

North-eastern hill areas of India are well known for harbouring rich insect fauna particularly the butterflies. Accordingly, the present studies on butterflies are based upon the material collected during 1961-1974 from Arunachal Pradesh and adjoining areas by several survey parties from the Zoological Survey of India. The Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh lies between 27o.0-29o.30’ longitudes north and 91o.30’-97o.30’ longitudes east, with its capital Itanagar. It has an area of 83,578 Km sq and altitudinal range from 2000-5000m. It is bounded by Bhutan to the west, Tibet and China to the north and east, Assam to the south, and Nagaland and Burma to the south-east. It has five Districts, viz., Kameng, Subansiri, Siang, Lohit and Tirap with their head-quarters at Bomdila, Ziro, Along, Tezu and Khonsa, respectively. Arunachal Pradesh is a wild and mountainous tract divided by several streams and rivers. The regular monsoon starts in April and continues heavily until October, and the rainfall amounts to about five metres per year. Earlier reports of butterflies from Arunachal Pradesh and adjoining areas are mainly by Evans (1912), Betts (1950) and Bhattacharya (1985) from Namdhapa, a wildlife sanctuary in Tirap. Presently, 129 species and subspecies in 67 genera distributed over five families, viz. Acraeidae, Satyridae, Nymphalidae, Riodinidae and Lycaenidae have been studied from the above mentioned area. The remarks on each species and subspecies include common name, variations in the size and shape of colour markings, fore wing length, geographical distribution and information on the food plants. Keys to genera and species of various families reported from the area under study have been provided after the works of Evans (1932), Corbet and Pendlebury (1956) for Nymphalidae and Riodinidae; Talbot (1947) for Satyridae and Cantlie (1962) for Lycaenidae. Amongst a total of 129 species and subspecies dealt with, 114 constitute new locality records for the Districts of Kameng, Subansiri, Siang, Lohit and Tirap; and of these, 37 are new records for the entire Arunachal Pradesh. Besides, 17 species and subspecies are rare and one i.e. Euthalia telchinia (Menetries) is very rare in status. Further, the list of species and subspecies of the aforesaid families so far known from Arunachal Pradesh has also been provided.