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| Cigaritis meghamalaiensis Sadasivan & Naicker, in Naicker, Chandrika, Kochunarayanan, Jose, Kripakaran, Palaniappan, Nair & Sadasivan, 2023 |
ABSTRACT
A new species Cigaritis meghamalaiensis sp. nov. (Lycaenidae, Aphnaeinae) is described from the Meghamalai hills of the Periyar landscape of the southern Western Ghats. Images of adults and illustrations of male genitalia are presented. Information on myrmecophilous immature stages is provided and its ecology is discussed. The new species is very distinct from all the known Cigaritis species in WG, and is diagnosed based on the following combination of characters–upper side of both wings marked extensively in blue; discal and post-discal bands on forewing underside conjoined and lying parallel from their origin at the costa; post-basal band in hindwing underside continuous and not broken into three smaller bands and this post-basal band ends at vein1b, is not continued along it to reach discal band. The discal and post-discal bands on the underside of the forewing is conjoined and lying parallel from their origin at the costa which is a unique feature that distinguishes the new species from all other Cigaritis species occurring in Peninsular India and Sri Lanka. A key to all known species of Cigaritis from the Western Ghats is provided.
Family Lycaenidae Leach, 1815
Subfamily Aphnaeinae Distant, 1884
Genus Cigaritis Donzel, 1847
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| Cigaritis meghamalaiensis sp. nov. Images of the types and paratypes. A and B – TLRG 1001 Holotype male, A – dorsal and B ventral views; C and D –TLRG 1002, Paratype male, C – dorsal and D – ventral view; D and E – paratype female TLRG 1003, D – dorsal view and E – ventral view; F and G – paratype female TLRG1004, F – dorsal view and G –ventral view. All images © Kalesh Sadasivan |
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| Cigaritis meghamalaiensis sp. nov. Field images of males, females and seasonal forms. A–male. Typicalcolor; B–female, typical color; C–male upperside; D–female upperside; E–dry season male underside; F–dryseason female underside; G–mating; H–oviposition. All images © Ramasamy Naicker |
Cigaritis meghamalaiensis Sadasivan & Naicker sp. nov.
Etymology: The new species is named after the Meghamalai region where it was discovered. Meghamalai means ‘cloud mountain’, reflecting the montane habitat of this very local species, which is restricted to the sub-tropical evergreen ‘sholas’ or cloud forests of the Periyar landscape. We suggest the common name ‘Cloud-forest Silverline’.
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| Cigaritis meghamalaiensis sp. nov., habitat and host plants. A–Sub-tropical Evergreen forests of Meghamalais (1400m ASL) © Ramasamy Naicker; B–Neolitsea cassia (L.), Kosterm., a host tree © Kalesh Sadasivan; C–typical climate inside the misty cloud forests © Jebin Jose; D–female ovipositing inside Crematogaster nest on Clerodendrum infortunatum L. © Ramasamy Naicker |
S. Ramasamy Kamaya Naicker, Sujitha Prabhakaran Chandrika, Baiju Kochunarayanan, Jebine Jose, Manoj Kripakaran, Rajkumar Chidambaram Palaniappan, Vinayan Padmanabhan Nair and Kalesh Sadasivan. 2023. A New Species of Cigaritis Donzel, 1847 (Lycaenidae, Aphnaeinae) from the southern Western Ghats of Peninsular India. ENTOMON. 48(4); 553–566. DOI: 10.33307/entomon.v48i4.991
www.entomon.in/index.php/Entomon/article/view/991
