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Tarucus balkanicus nigra– A rare find from Tamil Nadu
Tarucus balkanicus nigra, Bethune-Baker,1917, is a Lycaenidae butterfly belonging to the tribe Polyommatini. The butterfly is
similar in appearance to the other species in the genus Tarucus on the underwings and the upper wings are the key identifying
the species. The common names of the butterfly are Black-spotted Pierrot and Little Tiger Pierrot.
According to Paul Van Gasse, the following are the distribution of this species in India and elsewhere:
Tarucus balkanicus (Black-spotted Pierrot)
T.b.nigra: Fairly common from N Baluchistan (1000 to 1350m) and Sind through NWFP (north to Peshawar and Haza-
ra) and Punjab (north to Murree) in Pakistan, east in N India (not recorded Uttar Pradesh or Bihar, but doubtless oc-
curs) through Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana to S and C West Bengal and NW and C Bangladesh, north to
Himalayas, up to 1200m, from Kashmir east through Himachal Pradesh (Kullu and Simla) to Uttarakhand, and south to
W Maharashtra (probably expanding its range, now recorded south to Ratnagiri and Satara), Madhya Pradesh, and
Jharkhand.
[Given as T. nigra, Spotted Pierrot, in Evans, 1932]
A synoptic catalogue of the Butterflies of India by RK Varshney and Peter Smetacek describes the distribution of T. b. nigra as
India North of Maharashtra to West Bengal. Butterflies of India, the BNHS field guide by Isaac Kehimkar, describes the distribu-
tion as India (Himachal– Uttarakhand, Bihar, W. Bengal, Central India including Gujarat, Maharashtra), Pakistan and Bangla-
desh.
Wynter Blyth, M.A., in Butterflies of the Indian Region mentions the distribution as Baluchistan, Saurashtra, Delhi, Peshawar,
Simla Hills and Central India.
It is evident from the above descriptions that the species is not expected to occur in the South of India. Also, by carefully going
through the records found in “ifoundbutterflies” website and various Facebook and other forums, no recent records of this
species is found from the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
In this context, the sighting of a Tarucus balkanicus nigra from Singanallur lake, Coimbatore (by A Pavendhan), Tamil Nadu on
5th November 2017 assumes significance. It was a male specimen and both UP and UN were captured which were used to con-
firm the species identification with experts morphologically. Whether this is a range extension or a chance sighting will be
known through subsequent sighting of this species consistently. Since, Coimbatore is abundant with the other Tarucus species,
Tarucus nara, which looks the same in the UN, it is quite possible that some specimen earlier went as T. nara instead of T. b.
nigra in the absence of open wings.
The butterfly is small in size, 21-24 mm, and is described to have black discal spots on the UPF and with dark blue above with
narrow dark border. It is tailed and the UP is transparent. The female is however brownish grey with dark markings in the up-
per. Their habitat is scrublands and grasslands and is generally a species of dryland. Their host plants are Ziziphus species like
Ziziphus jujuba and Ziziphus nummularia, both of which are found in Coimbatore. Tarucus balkanicus has multiple generations
per year. Eggs are laid at the base of spines, rarely also on leaves. The larva has a characteristic feeding pattern with one to
four mines strips in the longitudinal direction on the leaf.
Tarucus balkanicus, Freyer, 1843/44, has 4 known sub-species across the globe and they are following:
T. b. balkanicus (Mauritania, Niger: Aïr region, Sudan, Uganda, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Algeria, south-
eastern Europe, Asia Minor, Middle East, Syria, Iran, North Africa)
T. b. areshana Bethune-Baker, [1918] (Kopet-Dagh)
T. b. alternatus Moore, 1882 (Ghissar, Darvaz)
T. b. nigra Bethune-Baker, 1918 - black-spotted Pierrot
References:
1. Annotated Checklist of the Butterflies of the Indian Subcontinent- by Paul Van Gasse
2. A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India– RK Varshney and Peter Smetacek
3. Butterflies of India, BNHS Field Guides, Isaac Kehimkar
4. Lepidoptera and their ecology- http://www.pyrgus.de/Tarucus_balkanicus_en.html
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarucus_balkanicus
Text, Analysis & Pictures: Pavendhan
PATTAMPOOCHI
A TNBS MAGAZINE
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