Kuekenthaliella mackinnonii (de Nicéville, 1891)

21.07.2018 12:26, Konstantin Lapin

There is a message about the first photo of Kuekenthaliella mackinnonii in 90 years: http://www.thesikkimchronicle.com/sikkim-rediscovery-of-rare-butterfly/

The first photographic record and rediscovery of a rare butterfly named Kuekenthaliella mackinnonii - from Sikkim by Tenzing W. Bhutia (B.O) KNP and a member of BAMOS-NCS. The species is still known in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, V. Nepal and S. Nepal, but has not yet been recorded from Sikkim.

On July 16, 2018, Tenzing W. Bhutia BO (KNP) first recorded this species from Northern Sikkim at an altitude of over 4,800 m (16,000 ft). The species is named after Mr. P. W. MacKinnon by Charles Lionel Augustus de Niceville in 1891, who collected the species in Himachal Pradesh at an altitude of 3,300 m (11,000 ft).

W. H. Evans (1932) previously considered this butterfly as "rare". The species has not been photographed in India or Nepal recently, and there is no information about this species since 1932. So this is probably a rediscovery of the species after more than 90 years, as well as a new species report for the state of Sikkim.