Coladenia indrani (Moore, 1865)

Banerjee, Debdulal, Singhamahapatra, Aniruddha & Roy, Subhajit, 2023, New larval host plants for three butterfly (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea) species from Rahr region of West Bengal, India, Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics 9 (1), pp. 67-79 : 70-71

Coladenia indrani (Moore, 1865)

Common name: Tricolor Pied Flat ( Fig. 2) ( Table 3)

Biology. Groups of around 10– 15 larvae were eventually spotted in seven Schleichera oleosa ( Ceylon Oak ) trees (heights of the trees ranging between 3 and about 20 metres) in various locations in and around the village. More larvae were further collected from Ceylon Oak trees of varying heights and one of them went into the pre-pupation stage on 16 th July 2020. The pupa was formed on 17 th July, and on 25 th July 2020, an adult butterfly eclosed from the pupa ( Fig. 2H). Unlike most butterfly larvae, this species feeds exclusively on mature green leaves (young leaves of the plant is being typically red – Fig. 2A) .

It was observed that it often goes to an indefinite period of pupation on being disturbed or intimidated (S. Kalesh pers. comm.) and care was taken to minimise disturbance of the leaf cell (where the larva, and subsequently the pupa nests) during pupal stage. The host plant is a common medium-sized deciduous tree in low hill forests and in the plains of India and South-East Asia. Known to flower between February and March and to bear fruits between April and August, in West Bengal, it is known to be commonly distributed in the districts of Bankura, Bardhaman and Purulia ( Chandra, 1997). All the observations of the larvae are during the post-fruiting stage of the plant, when neither flowers nor fruits could be found. An individual was first spotted in the Kadma village (S3) on 28 July 2019 and subsequently again on 24 September 2019. Larva from amature Schleichera oleosa tree was first observed and collected by the second author on 12 June 2020 at 18:00 hrs in the evening in his village. The pupa was found to be infected by some unidentified fungi.

Behaviour. Larvae of most skippers live in a cell formed from a curled-over leaf (Wynter-Blyth, 1957), and Coladenia indrani is no exception. The early instar of the larva cuts out a circular piece from the middle of a mature leaf and turns it over onto the top of the leaf, forming a concave cell with a wide base, where it rests, coming out only to feed. In the first two instars, it keeps on feeding the leaves and shields itself by covering within the leaf ( Fig. 2F). Larvae become intermittently dormant during their feeding period. The pre-pupation and pupal stages of development take place in the safe haven of that cell.

Distribution. Coladenia indrani is distributed across most of South and Southeast Asia including India , Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar (van Gasse, 2021), Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and south China ( Inayoshi, 2022). In India , it is a common species in the foothills of Himalaya, found from Jammu & Kashmir in the west to Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram in the east. In peninsular India , it is occasionally encountered in West Bengal (western part), Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra (eastern part) and Tamil Nadu. It is also frequently sighted in the Western Ghats ( Kunte et al., 2022). In the state of West Bengal, it is common in the northern region of Dooars covering the districts of Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong and Darjeeling. It is however, occasionally sighted in the western districts of Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram, and Paschim Medinipur. It is very rare in the Gangetic plains ( Kunte et al., 2022).