In search of butterflies of Himhala

Day butterflies with their elegance, beauty and unusual, fluttering flight are fascinated by almost everyone, at least in childhood. The ancient Greeks used the same word to the psycho to designate the human soul and butterflies. The Lepidoptera detachment (scales), as these lovely creatures are called in a scientific, are among the most studied in gigantic in the number of types of insect classes, which is studied by science of entomology.

In the British Empire, collecting and studying these graceful creatures was one of the hobbies of the nobility, military officers. In the Russian Empire, for the most part, foreigners (from the 18th and about the middle of the 19th century), and then raznochintsy or small nobles, first were engaged in the Russian Empire. However, entomology was an exception. Thus, the composition of the founders and members of the Russian entomological society (REO founded in St. Petersburg in 1859) included influential people associated with the tsarist court, including high-ranking officers.

The famous Lepidopterologist was Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich (1859–1919), who left the multi -volume Mémoires Sur Lépidoptéres. His personal collection contained more than 110 thousand butterflies from different regions of the world. In 1900, he presented it with the Zoological Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (now the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences).

The chamber junker A.N. Avinov (1884–1949), like his General Father, was also fond of butterflies. In 1907, Andrei Nikolaevich (by the way, well acquainted with N.M. Romanov) was elected a member of the REO. In 1912, accompanied by two comrades, he went to Central Asia, having visited Kashmir, Ladak and other areas of the Western Himalayas [1] . This Russian expedition “in order to collect butterflies” turned out to be forgotten in the history of our science, although the author managed to publish a zoogeographic article in Russian before the revolution [2] .

The remarkable writer Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977), the son of wealthy parents, the famous aristocrat-anglophile, also made his contribution to the entomology. The author of 23 scientific articles [3] , he did not forget about butterflies and in the novel “Gift”, actually, a new-led writer-democrat N.G. Chernyshevsky! In the second chapter of this book, you can find both personal experiences associated with interest in butterflies, as well as links to entomologists and Russian researchers of Central Asia, interspersed with thoughts about A. S. Pushkin.

In the novel there are hints of a certain journey of Tibet, the West of China, Pamir and the Gobi Desert, an anonymous Grand Duke (obviously N. M. Romanov!) And Avinov, various scientific societies, are mentioned, a fictional biography of an entomologist with a list of printed works is given. In this strange, mysterious mixture, real naturalists and their works are guessed. All this combined is a fascinating rebus for the zoologist who is interested in history and trying to decipher the difficult idea of ​​the writer.

***

Butterflies arose during the time of dinosaurs and could well fly in the Jurassic Park. Now there are about 150 thousand species in the world. It is impossible to name the exact figure, since every year scientists describe hundreds of new species. On the other hand, as a result of human economic activity, such as cutting tropical forests, some species disappear from the face of our planet even before someone finds them.

Butterflies are an interesting object for zoogeography. Unlike sedentary animals that are not capable of active resettlement in large spaces, butterflies resemble birds. For example, a burden ( Vanessa Cardui ) is capable of making long -distance flights from North Africa through the Mediterranean Sea to South Europe and further north up to the Polar Svalbard. In India, this species is found from the Himalayas to the coast of the Indian Ocean.

Representatives of the Danaid family are also prone to distant migrations. Danais Monarch ( Danaus plexippus ) with the onset of cold weather flies to winter from South Canada to Mexico, overcoming several thousand kilometers. In the Himalayas, we came across a different kind of the same kind - Danais Chrysipus, whose area extends from the Canary Islands to the north of Australia.

The fauna of the butterflies of India is very rich and has more than 1,500 species, a hundred of them are endemic [4] , i.e. They never meet anywhere else. Most lives on the plains of Hindustan related to the oriental (or indo-Malay) region. Propagating intensively, many species strive to penetrate other limits, but their resettlement is pushed into the magnificent wall of the Himalayan mountains separating the Palearctic (a vast territory that includes Europe, Northern Africa and Vlesopical Asia) from the oriental region.

This is how the passionate entomologist A.N. figuratively described this situation Avinov: “These cohesive ranks of alien [palearctic] elements cover the Himalayan strongholds with a tight ring, and there is nothing surprising if separate subtropical defectors make their way to the alpine citadel of the Palearctic.”

The fauna of the butterflies of the plain part of the Hindustan peninsula is sharply different from the fauna of the Palearctic: there is almost no general birth between them. In the Himalayas, some representatives of the tropics, for example, from the Danaid family, climb the river valleys to the mountains. However, the higher, the poorer their fauna becomes, since only a few species can survive at high altitudes. In the Himalayas, more than 600 types of butterflies are known, and in the east their variety is greater than in the West of this vast mountain system.

The famous Indian entomologist and biogeographer M. S. Mani [5] believed that the Satlay River should be considered as an important line in two respects. Firstly, this is a border separating the northwest and Western Himalayas. Secondly, the fauna of the forest zone to the west and east of this river is very different. In addition, the Valley of Satledge, deeply cutting out the high Himalayan ridges, forms a corridor for the vertical resettlement of plain and mountain species, along which a gradual environmental transition is carried out from butterflies of moist tropical forests to the types of subtropics and higher to the inhabitants of the steppe and arid areas.

Thus, from the zoogeographic point of view, the Himalayas are of great interest, because the habitat here change in three directions at once: from north to south, from west to east and bottom up, from the foot of the mountains to the peaks. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the first biogeographic expedition of the St. Petersburg Union of Scientists in the fall of 2011, much attention was paid to the examination of the Satlay River basin in the Indian state of Himalel-Pradesh [6] .

According to Professor M. S. Mani [5] , the upper boundary of the forest in the north-western Himalayas runs at an altitude of about 3000 m above sea level, the alpine zone extends higher, and a constant snow line runs out at the level of 5200 m. However, in 2011, we discovered pines at an altitude of 3200 m (Baspa River) in the Kinnor district, a birch grove at an altitude of 3260 m (Chandra River) and Archevniki at an altitude of 3376 m (Bhaga River) in Lahaul (Lahaul).

Steppery and arid areas are characteristic of the so -called transhimalayas, where monsoons do not penetrate. Indeed, it was worth our group moving to the north-east along the Satlayge to turn through a very narrow gorge (2600 m above sea level) to the west into the valley of its right tributary of the Spiti River, as the surrounding landscape changed sharply: the forested slopes disappeared, instead of them we saw stony talus with a stubborn high-mountain vegetation. In Indian geography, such areas are called cold alpine deserts.

Unlike lower heights, here we are clearly palearctic butterflies: cabbage white whitewashes ( pieris brassicae ) and revelry ( pontia daplidice ), filter jaundice ( Colias Feldii ) and Erata ( Colias Erant ), spotty worm ( Lycaena Phlaeas ),,,, Gorgery ( Polygonia Egea ). They are widespread, and some of them can be found even in our latitudes, in the suburbs or Leningrad region.

Himalayas daily butterflies are divided into two large ecological groups-mining (85%) and high-mountain gypsobion species (15%), the latter do not descend below the upper boundary of the forest. The first group includes large, brightly colored representatives of the ancient (tertiary) tropical fauna, inhabiting forests of Burma, Thailand and Southern China.

In the Kulu Valley near the city of Nagar, where the estate of the Roerich family is located (height 1770 m), at the beginning of the second decade of October 2011, the bunker of Junonia iPhita , and bright, with metal-shy wings of Heliophorus Androcles , were common. Both of these types belong to the oriental region.

If the Himalayan endemic is not more than 5%among the mountainous types of mainly oriental origin, then in the group of gypsobion butterflies, endemism reaches 90%. In general, the fauna above the forest border is considered evolutionarily younger. It consists mainly of high -mountain palearctic species, among which there are a lot of endemic subspecies.

About half of the group of high -mountain butterflies live to a height of 4200 m [5] . About 5% of species reach 5500 m; Among them is the Kashmir multi -stained man ( Nymphalis Caschmirensis ), marked at an altitude of 5485 m. Two species ( Parnassius Acco and Colias Dubia ) in the east of the Himalayas and Tibeta live 5790 m.

Random bars of butterflies were marked to a height of 6100 m.

In the northwestern Himalayas, i.e. To the west of the Satledge River, a group of high -mountain butterflies are represented by sailboats of the genus Parnassius (more than 10 species), Mahaon ( Papilio Machaon ), ordinary in our area of ​​the Belyani genus Pieris (cabbage, repnaya and trouser), Krushinnitsa ( Gonepteryx Rhamni ) and others. Representatives of these clans entered the north-west of Gimalayev from the Mountain System of Karakorum, Tibet and other related regions. Palearctic species are also found in the Eastern Himalayas (for example, Mahaon), but in the north-west areas there are much more of them.

During our trips from September 27 to October 17, 2011 to the east of Himal-Pradesh at heights from 680 m (Kalka) to 4600 m (Kunsum Pass), 30 types of daily butterflies from the Papilionidae families (2), Pieridae (10), Lycaenidae (5), Nymphalidae (9) and 9) and 9) and 9) and 9) and 9) and 9) and 9) and 9) and 9) Satyridae (4).

11 of the species we met should be considered palearcts, 8-oriental (indo-Malay), and another 10 species are found both in the Palearctic and in the oriental region [7] . In the Bias River Valley, we came across a Himalayan five -eye ( YptHima Nikaea ), the endemic of the Western Himalayas, common in the range of 1,500–2300 m.

In the Valley of the Baspa River, the eastern tributary of Satledge ( see the previous number of the TRV-hunger ) in two days 11 types of butterflies were identified. Among them were 6 palearcts, 2 oriental species and 3 species that live in both zoogeographic areas. This ratio clearly indicates the predominance of butterflies in this valley associated with the Palearctic, which does not confirm the concept of M. S. Mani [5] about the Satlay as a sharp line that isolating palearctic and oriental species. Our data prove that, within India, the Palearcts live in the east of the upper reaches of the Indus River basin.

The zoogeographic analysis of the fauna of the butterflies of the Himalayas complicates seasonal migration of species. Among the butterflies of India, they are characteristic of 60 species, and 33 of them live in the Himalayas [4] . Moving vertically, these delicate creatures try to avoid adverse conditions. Closer to winter, they descend into warm valleys, and in the spring they rise to cool mountains.

In the village of NA (3660 m), on October 5, we discovered a cabbage ( Pieris Brassicae ) on the SPIT River. This purely palearctic appearance is very widespread, and in the summer it can be found, for example, in the Leningrad region. Judging by the fresh look of butterflies, they hatched recently. However, about two weeks later the winter season begins in the highlands, and the cabbage should inevitably die. In contrast, for example, some nymphalid, which winter at the butterfly stage, Pieris Brassicae can only be wintering at the doll stage. The question arises, why is this species in the event of an inevitable mass death? Most likely, with the onset of cold weather, the butterflies will go down the valley down, in search of warmer places.

Another case is a very ordinary Pomona Belyanka in India. On September 28, she flew in large numbers near the Kalka railway station (680 m) in the Pathamalayas (the so -called Siliksky hills). However, at the most heights, we could not find it in the same autumn, although it is known [4] that in the summer Pomona climbs up to 4000 m above sea level. Therefore, it can also be assumed that with the approximation of autumn, the view migrated from the Himalayan heights to the plain of Hindustan.

Lev Borkin, Alexander Lvovsky,
Center for Himalayan Scientific Research of St. Petersburg
Union of Scientists, Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

TRV-hobby-information partner of SPBCU on the Himalayan project.

1. See also a TRV-hunger, 2015. No. 3 (172). S. 8 .

2. Avinov A.N. To the question of the more fractional zooegeographic units of the Palearctic parts of British India on the basis of the distribution and group of Lepidoptera Rhopolocera (daytime butterflies) // News of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. Petrograd. 1915. T. 49. Issue. 4-6 (for 1913). S. 523–563.

3. Lvovsky A.L., Mironov V.G. Entomological hobbies of the writer Vladimir Nabokov // Rodnik of Knowledge. SPb. 2010. No. 2 (5). S. 34–36.

4. Singh AP Butterfies of India. Noida (Uttar Pradesh): OM Books 2011. 183 p.

5. Mani MS 1974. Bioography of the Himalaya // Mani MS (ed.). Ecology and BioGeography in India. The Hague: Dr. W. Junk BV Publishers, P. 664–681. (Monographiae Biologicae, 23). Mani MS Butterfies of the Himalaya. Dordrecht; Boston; Lancaster: Dr. W. Junk Publisher, 1986. X+181 p. (Series Entomologica, 36).

6. Borkin, L.Ya. Izvara, N.K. Roerich, Himalayas. St. Petersburg: European House, 2014. 254 p. See alsoa three-hobby. 2015. No. 3-7 .

7. Lviv A. L. Features of the autumn fauna of pace-shaped scales (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea) Coevr-Western India // XIV Congress of the Russian Enthomological Society. Russia, St. Petersburg, August 27-September 1, 2012 Congress. 2012. S. 258.