Catochrysops strabo strabo (Fabricius, 1793)

KC, Sajan, Pariyar, Surendra & Sapkota, Anisha, 2025, Refining Nepal's butterfly records: self-corrections and notes on previously recorded Papilionoidea (Lepidoptera) species, Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics 11 (2), pp. 363-377 : 372

Catochrysops strabo strabo (Fabricius, 1793)

Hesperia strabo Fabricius, 1793 , Type locality: Tranquebar, India.

Material Examined. Photographic evidence: 1 ♂ ♀ (mating pair), NEPAL, Bhorletar, Lamjung District , Gandaki Province (28°09'57.0"N 84°13'02.0"E, 460 m), 18-III-2020 ( Fig. 4G) .

Diagnosis. In Catochrysops strabo , the costal spot on the ventral side of the forewing is midway between the postdiscal band and the cell-end bar, whereas in C. panormus exiguus (Distant, 1886) , the costal spot is closer to the postdiscal band ( Corbet & Pendlebury, 1956, Fleming, 1975, Ek-Amnuay, 2012, Smetacek, 2017).

Remarks. A mating pair of Catochrysops sp. ( Fig. 4G) was discovered at the given location along a rural trail by a riverside. Initially published as C. panormus exiguus in KC and Sapkota (2020), the identification was based on the diagnostic key provided above; however, we have since realized that this character is not always reliable. Perhaps a more dependable distinguishing feature is the submarginal spots on the ventral forewing of C. panormus exiguus , which are typically broken into arrow shapes compared to the continuous spots in C. s. strabo (see Inayoshi, 2024). Although this character for C. panormus is present in the female individual in our photograph ( Fig. 4G, left individual), it is absent in the male individual ( Fig. 4G, right individual), whose costal spot is not clearly visible either, and the bands are plain. Owing to the uncertainty surrounding the identification, we retract this record of C. panormus exiguus and propose that the individuals represent a variation of the more common and widespread C. s. strabo .

Distribution. Nepal ( Smith, 2011); India, including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands ( Varshney & Smetacek, 2015), to Myanmar ( Inayoshi, 2024); Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, S. China, Malaysia, and Singapore ( Inayoshi, 2024).