Faunistic study of butterflies (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea) of Sulaymaniyah Province, Kurdistan-Iraq

Abstract Background This study investigates the butterfly fauna (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea) of Sulaymaniyah Province, in Kurdistan Region, Iraq. Investigations were carried out between April 2016 and April 2021, during which butterfly specimens were collected from 34 different localities throughout Sulaymaniyah Province. The collected butterflies belonged to 103 species within five families: five species of Papilionidae, 19 species of Hesperiidae, 18 species of Pieridae, 25 species of Lycaenidae and 36 species of Nymphalidae. New information Eight species, Carcharodusstauderi Reverdin, 1913, Thymelicushyrax Lederer, 1861, Gonepteryxrhamni (Linnaeus, 1758) Pieriskrueperi Staudinger, 1860, Coliaserate Esper, 1803, Polyommatusthersites (Cantener, 1835), Brenthismofidii Wyatt, 1968 and Pseudochazaramamurra Herrich-Schäffer, 1852 have been added as new records to the fauna of Iraqi butterflies.


Introduction
Sulaymaniyah Province is a mountainous area located in the northeast of Iraq and the southeast part of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. As a part of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region biogeographically, Sulaymaniyah is situated in the Irano-Tauranian in the southeast of the western Palearctic realm (Ararat 2009). The Province mostly lies between 34°50′ to 36°50′ N longitude and 44°70′ to 46°00′ E latitude, elevation ranges 150-2550 m a.s.l. Sulaymaniyah has a diverse topography of mountains, hills, plains, valleys and lakes, with great biodiversity and many diverse habitats (Ararat 2009, Ahmed 2016.
Butterflies belong to a single superfamily, Papilionoidea (Heikkilä et al. 2011, Wiemers andVerovnik 2016). This superfamily consists of seven families; Papilionidae, Hedylidae, Hesperiidae, Pieridae, Riodinidae, Lycaenidae and Nymphalidae (van Nieukerken et al. 2011, Wiemers andVerovnik 2016). In the past, the Lepidopteran faunal compositions have been rarely studied in Iraq in general and, particularly, in Sulaymaniyah. Butterfly recording in Iraq seemed to begin with Peile (1921), who published his notes on 44 species of the butterfly taken from Mesopotamia and another 44 species collected from adjacent highlands of northwest Persia and South Kurdistan. Scott (1929), in his entomological journey to the Sulaymaniyah Province, failed to record any butterfly species. The first and major contribution to the Lepidoptera fauna of Iraq was published by the British Colonel Wiltshire (1957). This work was a compilation of his intensively published articles (Wiltshire 1937a, Wiltshire 1937b, Wiltshire 1939a, Wiltshire 1939b, Wiltshire 1941, Wiltshire 1944. One year later, Higgins (1958), during his visit to Kurdistan, listed notes about 65 species of butterfly and added several new records to the known butterfly fauna of Iraq. During the 1970s, only a single Nymphalid species was recorded in Iraq (Igarashi 1971). There are several other published works considering Lepidoptera fauna in Iraq, which mostly depend on literature linked to Iraqi butterfly fauna (Kemal and Koçak 2011, Kemal and Koçak 2018, Koçak and Kemal 2001. Colonel Wiltshire's data have been used to map Iraqi butterflies by Tshikolovets et al. (2014) in a book entitled "The butterflies of Iran and Iraq", in which they studied also some fragmentary data from literature linked to Iraqi butterfly fauna and a few museum specimens. Recently in 2018, three articles have been published dealing with the butterfly fauna of Iraqi Kurdistan. These three studies have added several species to the known Iraqi fauna in the form of new records (Othman et al. 2018, Said et al. 2018, Yakovlev 2018, fifty-five species in the Erbil Province (Othman et al. 2018) and fifty species in the Duhok Province (Said et al. 2018, Yakovlev 2018. Lately, two lycaeniid butterfly species of the genus Polyommatus have been added to the Iraqi's butterfly fauna ( Khudhur 2021). Based on literature data, the total recorded number of butterfly species in Iraq is 154 (Wiltshire 1957, Higgins 1958, Igarashi 1971, Othman et al. 2018, Said et al. 2018, Yakovlev 2018, Khudhur 2021.
The current study aims to investigate the butterfly fauna in the Sulaymaniyah Province and to contribute to the knowledge of Papilionoidea species and their distribution in Iraq.

Materials and methods
All butterflies were collected by F. Khudhur between April 2016 and April 2021. The specimens were collected from 34 different sites throughout the Sulaymaniyah Province (Table 1, Fig. 1). Sweeping nets were used for collecting the specimens. Specimens were euthanised with ethyl acetate vapour and were then put into a paper envelope and brought to the laboratory pinned, mounted, labelled and deposited in the Entomology Laboratory, Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Sulaimani, Sulaymaniyah Province, Kurdistan Region, Iraq. The species were identified according to Wiltshire (1957), Higgins (1958, Baytaş (2007), Eckweiler (2011), Tshikolovets et al. (2014), Tikhonov et al. (2020

Discussion
This study is first intensive faunistic study of butterfly in Sulaymaniyah Province. The diverse topography and ecosystems in Sulaymaniyah Province contributes to the richness in its biodiversity (Ararat 2009). In particular, the area has a mixed long border and extended geography with three areas of rich biodiversity: the Zagrosian Provinces of Iran including West Azarbayjan, Kordestan and Kermanshah (Haidari 2012, Kazemi andHossienzadeh 2020). The results of this study reflect this biodiversity richness. In addition to the 154 species of butterflies that have been documented previously in Iraq (Wiltshire 1957, Higgins 1958, Igarashi 1971, Othman et al. 2018, Said et al. 2018, Yakovlev 2018, Khudhur 2021, 95 species were founded in Sulaymaniyah Province during these investigations. Moreover, this study adds eight new species previously unrecorded to the butterfly fauna of Iraq. Three of these newly-found species within Iraq belong to Pieridae; Pieris krueperi, Gonepteryx rhamni and Colias erate. The five others were two skippers, Carcharodus stauderi and Thymelicus hyrax; two Nymphalids Brenthis mofidii and Pseudochazara mamurra and a lycaenid butterfly Polyommatus thersites. All of these new records were predicted to be found here, since Sulaymaniyah is located near to the known distribution range of these species (Wiltshire 1957, Eckweiler 2012, Tshikolovets et al. 2014, Tikhonov et al. 2020. Several works of literature (Kemal and Koçak 2011, Bozano et al. 2016, Kemal and Koçak 2018 indicated distribution of these mentioned species in Iraq, based on the country position within the range of the Westren Palaearctic Region, while these indications were not supported by referencing to specific preserved specimens from Iraq. More new records of butterflies are likely to be found in this region and neighbouring areas in the future studies. Amongst the visited localities of this study, Piramagroon Mountain (Zêwê Village, locality no.15) was unique and had the richest diversity regarding butterflies with the highest number of species recorded, including the three new records Carcharodus stauderi, Gonepteryx rhamni and Pseudochazara mamurra. Furthermore, several other rarely found species were collected from Piramagroon Mountain, including Favonius quercus, Satyrium gerhardi, Hyponephele wagneri, Hyponephele lupine, Pararge climene and Erynnis marloyi. Therefore, this mountain deserves further investigations and will be the next focus for our future work.