Celaenorrhinus nigricans nigricans (de Nicéville, 1885)

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 : 367

Celaenorrhinus nigricans nigricans (de Nicéville, 1885)

Plesioneura nigricans de Nicéville, 1885 , Type locality: Sikkim, India.

Material Examined. Photographic evidence: 1, sex unknown, NEPAL, Magyam, Chisapani , Syangja District , Gandaki Province (28°01'04.6"N 84°00'05.9"E, 963 m), 9-VII-2019, 12:24 PM; 1, sex unknown, NEPAL, Sarangkot, Pokhara, Kaski District , Gandaki Province (28°13'01.9"N 83°57'47.3"E, 868 m), 14- VII-2019, 4:56 PM .

Diagnosis. Celaenorrhinus n. nigricans is distinguished from its sympatric congeners by several external characters: the absence of orange spots on the dorsal hindwings; a white discal band on the dorsal forewing that extends up to the costa; forewing spot 3 completely joined to the discal band and not separate; forewing spot 1b not overlapped to the band; hindwing cilia not prominently checkered (but see Fig. 3A); antennae white in front of the clubs only ( Evans, 1949; Fleming, 1975).

Remarks. Celaenorrhinus is a pantropical hesperiid genus comprising approximately 90 species globally ( Bascombe et al., 1999). In Nepal, Celaenorrhinus n. nigricans was first documented by Colin Smith in his personal records, based on three sightings in Kaski District: Rakhi Village (June 25, 2006) and Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge (March 8, 2009, and July 5, 2010); however, these findings were not made publicly available. The first author encountered two individuals of this species in central Nepal in July 2019: one in Magyam, Chisapani, Syangja District, and the other in Sarangkot, Pokhara, Kaski District (see KC & Pariyar, 2019b). The prominent surrounding vegetation at both locations was comprised of bamboo ( Poaceae ), Rubus paniculatus Sm. ( Rosaceae ), Schima wallichii (DC.) Korth. ( Theaceae ), and Shorea robusta Gaertn. ( Dipterocarpaceae ). Since our report in KC and Pariyar (2019b), this species has been frequently observed in or near these localities ( Figs 3A, 3B), including in Tanahun District, between March and November ( Van der Poel & Smetacek, 2022). Particularly, it is often sighted along forest trails at the specified location in Kaski District.

Distribution. Sikkim to NE India ( Varshney & Smetacek, 2015); Bhutan, Myanmar ( Evans, 1949); Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia ( Inayoshi, 2024); Nepal (New Record).