The present communication deals with the new nymphalid butterfly records from the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The sightings are based on the butterfly surveys conducted in different ecosystems of Jammu region in a span of two years. The paper calls for more organized and intensive butterfly surveys to understand their status, distribution and population dynamics in and around Jammu.

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The Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir, owing to variety of habitats, different climatic regimes and a wide range of altitude offers conducive habitats to butterflies ranging from low level hills of Shiwaliks to Trans-Himalayan landscapes of Ladakh through mighty Pir-Panjal and Valley of Kashmir.   It is noteworthy that these mountainous landscapes though rich in insect diversity are the least known for butterfly fauna. The present note describes the new records based on opportunistic surveys of butterflies on the sidelines of avian surveys conducted in Jammu Shiwaliks during the years 2015 and 2016.

The butterfly surveys were conducted across different regions of Jammu province right from southern alluvial plains of Chenab and Ravi to Great Himalayas through Shiwaliks and Pir-Panjal mountains during June 2016 to February 2018. The areas covered included  Kalidhar and Dalhori  forests, district Rajouri (west), Mansar-Surinsar-Manwal range, districts Jammu, Samba and Udhampur (south), Mansar-Manwal, Billawar-Basoholi-Bani, district Kathua (east), Bhaderwah, district Doda (north), and Paddar in district Kishtwar (northeast) within an elevational range of 320 m to 3200 m (Fig. 1). During the explorations, we observed eight Lycaenid butterfly species previously not recorded from the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The present communication deals with eight species of Hesperiidae recorded for the first time from different localities in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir during 2018 to 2020. These include Burara oedipodea belesis, Matapa aria, Erionota torus, Udaspes folus, Coladenia indrani indrani, Tagiades cohaerens cynthia, Celaenorrhinus dhanada and Pseudocoladenia fatih. The information on the current extant and their known distribution till now has been given along with the photographs. These records will be helpful in updating the range distribution of butterflies in north western Himalayas.

The mango leaf hopper Amritodus atkinsoni (Leth.) is a very serious pest of mango in J&K region. A series of experiments were conducted on seasonal abundance and the influence of abiotic factors on the incidence of A. atkinsoni on wild and different cultivars of mango viz Dashehari, Langra, Malda and Amarpalli  at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science and Technology Jammu, and, at a mango orchard at Nagbani. The mango hoppers (adults) started appearing with the panicle emergence during the months of February-March and reached its peak ranging from 9.6 to 14.2 in wild and all cultivars under study during May-June. After this the hopper population started declining, but showed another peak (6.6 to 9.8) during August-September which is comparatively lower than the previous one. This clearly indicates that the species breeds twice a year thus a bivoltine species. From September onwards, the hoppers went on declining and vanished by the end of December as they migrate to cracks and crevices of tree trunk and overwinter as adults. Abiotic factors such as maximum temperature (X1), minimum temperature (X2), morning relative humidity (X3), evening relative humidity (X4) and rainfall (X5) had much impact on the growth of hopper population. The hopper population correlated negatively and significantly with morning relative humidity (r = -0.635 to - 0.816) and evening relative humidity (r = - 0.289 to - 0.556) and showed a significant positive correlation with mean maximum temperature (r = 0.692 to 0.915) and minimum temperature (r = 0.590 to 0.881) in wild and all four cultivars, whereas rainfall remained fluctuating throughout the study period thus didn’t show any significant impact.

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Understanding the species distribution and richness along an environmental gradient helps identify hotspots and prioritize conservation efforts at landscape scale. This is more effective for the species that are indicators of environmental change, such as odonates. As the information about the distribution of this group of insects is scarce in Jammu & Kashmir, their documentation assumes a greater significance.  Here, we present a checklist of odonate species from 23 sites across diverse landscapes in subtropical, temperate, and alpine ecosystems over an elevational gradient of 3,700 m in Jammu division. We recorded 63 species from 39 genera and 11 families, four Anisoptera and seven Zygoptera. The most represented families were Libellulidae (15 genera & 29 species) and Coenagrionidae (five genera & 10 species). The preliminary surveys resulted in addition of 24 new species to the Odanata fauna of Jammu & Kashmir, including three new to the northwestern Himalaya. The study underlines that even opportunistic records are useful in understanding the distribution range and delineating the potential habitats of odonates. The study calls for intensive odonate surveys to better understand their distribution and ecology in hitherto less explored region in the northwestern Himalaya.