Taxonomic studies on two species of Genus Vanessa (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae) from Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

The genus Vanessa Fabricius, 1807 belong to family Nymphalidae and subfamily Nymphalinae. The butterflies of the genus Vanessa were collected from different Sub-Alpine localities of Himachal Pradesh during August 2013 to October 2013. During present investigation two species namely Vanessa cardui (Linnaeus, 1758) and Vanessa Indica (Herbst, 1794) were identified on the basis of morphological features and external genitalia. An attempt has been made to study various genitalic parts like the uncus, valva, saccus and aedeagus.