METAMORPHOSIS LEPIDOPTERISTS’ SOCIETY OF AFRICA
Volume 28: 54 ISSN 1018–6490 (PRINT) ISSN 2307–5031 (ONLINE)
NOTE
An aberrant Junonia hierta (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae) in northern Oman Published online: 17 December 2017
P.J. Cowan1, H.H.H. Otto† & E.M. Cowan2 1Department
of Biological Sciences & Chemistry, University of Nizwa, Birkat Al Mawz, Sultanate of Oman E-mail:
[email protected] 2School of Education, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3FX, Scotland. E-mail:
[email protected] †Deceased (Otto & Bode 2016). Copyright © Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa
On 9 December 2015 PJC and EMC watched a black-and-white butterfly fly past beside ‘Hoota’ pool. It temporarily landed allowing EMC to obtain some photos (Figs 1 & 2). Hoota pool is a wadi pool west of Nizwa, in northern Oman, in the southern foothills of the Jebel Akhdar range (Cowan & Cowan, 2015). On inspection of the photos we initially thought it was Junonia oenone (Linnaeus, 1758), unknown in (northern) Oman. However a detailed inspection of the photos by HHHO led him to consult with Steve Collins, Gary Feulner, Mark Williams and Steve Woodhall. HHHO considered that it was most likely to be an aberrant Junonia hierta (Fabricius, 1798), presumably a ‘melanised’ individual. As noted by GF, a simple darkening of various areas of a typical J. hierta could give the observed colour pattern. Rudi Verovnik considered it looked like an aberrant J. hierta, with reduced yellow markings. J. hierta is common in southern Oman. In northern Oman, two probables were seen in the Jebel Akhdar foothills (Larsen & Larsen, 1980) and Larsen (1983) mentioned a record elsewhere in the foothills near Rostaq. Walker & Pittaway (1987) mapped J. hierta as occurring throughout the Hajar mountains (which include the Jebel Akhdar range) of northern Oman. The common Junonia in the Hajar mountains is J. orithya (Linnaeus, 1764). J. hierta might be a migrant from further south.
Figure 1 – An aberrant Junonia hierta Hoota pool, northern Oman, upperside. © E.M. Cowan
LITERATURE CITED COWAN, P.J. & COWAN, E.M. 2015. Odonata (Insecta) at a wadi pool near Nizwa, northern Oman. Journal of Threatened Taxa 7(9): 7538– 7546. Received: 27 November 2017 Published: 17 December 2017 Copyright: This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, send a letter to Creative Commons, Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA, or visit: http://creative commons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Figure 2 – An aberrant Junonia hierta Hoota pool, northern Oman, showing underside. © E.M. Cowan
LARSEN, T.B. 1983. Lepidoptera; Rhopalocera (A monograph of the butterflies of the Arabian peninsula). Fauna of Saudi Arabia 5: 333–478. LARSEN, T. & LARSEN, K. 1980. Butterflies of Oman. Bartholomew, Edinburgh. OTTO, B. & BODE, J. 2016. Obituary—Herbert Otto. Metamorphosis 27: 5–6. WALKER, D.H. & PITTAWAY, A.R. 1987. Insects of eastern Arabia. Macmillan, London.
