Common Yellow-breasted Flat

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The residents tend to stay put and in most cases are found in the same locality.  It only requires constant vigil and continues tracking and determination.  This is very true as far as butterflies are concerned.  Kallar has been under the scanner of WBA for some time now and the treasures are being unearthed one after the other.  The following is a narrative to prove the same.

Gerosis bhagava or the Common Yellow-breasted flat is a rare butterfly and is distributed in the Western Ghats and in some parts of the North East, as seen from the available online media resources. W.H. Evans states that this species was distributed from Bombay to the Central Provinces of India, with no mention about TN or Kerala. However, bulk of the photographic evidence of this species is from the states TN and Kerala, with some records from the North Eastern states. There is also evidence of its presence in China.

As listed in the IFB, this species was sighted at Kallar in the year 2009 (IFB, n.d.) and after that there has been a slack in observation in the area due to less awareness of butterflies amongst locals. On interaction with peers and people who had seen the species way back in 1989, it was reiterated that they are there.  The vigil intensified and results came to fore.

This species has been recorded thrice since 2016.  The first sighting happened in the Government Horticulture Farm at Kallar, in the foothills (Jan’16). The second instance happened at the Lamb’s Rock near Coonoor, close to the Adderley Estate in Sep’16. The third sighting again happened in Kallar in Oct’17. Some photos of this delightful butterfly can be seen below. In the first two instances, the flat was sun basking on top of leaves, while in the third instance, it was seen puddling on moss covered damp ground.

Though this species has a number of known host plants, the Kallar farm has trees of the Dalbergia lanceolaria. The host is known to be foliaceous and peaks in flowering in April and starts fruiting from May onwards (Kavitha et al. 2008).  Close scrutiny of these plants at regular intervals has not yielded any evidence of egg laying or any other reproductive activity happening. The probability that it has other allied species as its host plant cannot be ignored too.  Going by the intervals at which this species has been sighted, this can be stated as very rare.


A recent rock fall in the farm at Kallar destroyed a known tree which was being observed for egg laying; but there are other specimens under observation and WBA hopes to record more life stages of this elusive butterfly in the future.

- Vinod Sriramulu

Image 1 - Gerosis bhagava (Kallar, Oct'17)


Image credit - Vinod Sriramulu

References
  • Chiba, H. (2008). Skippers of Hainan (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae). Report on Insect Inventory Project in Tropical Asia (Taiiv), 337-344.
  • Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies. The Bombay Natural History Society.
  • IFB (n.d.). Species page: Gerosis bhagava. Retrieved from http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/#!/sp/940/Gerosis-bhagava
  • Kavitha, A., N. Deepthi, R. Ganesan, S. C. Gladwin Joseph. Common Dryland Trees of Karnataka: Bilingual Field Guide. Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, 2038
  • Kehmikar, I., 2014. The Book of Indian Butterflies. Bombay Natural History Society.



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