An updated checklist of the skippers (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) of Bhutan

Abstract

The authors conducted a comprehensive review of Hesperiidae species in Bhutan, scrutinizing three existing checklists and 25 new records presented by Van der Poel et al. (2023). A thorough examination of all available documents and evidence confirmed 145 Hesperiidae species in Bhutan, with four additional species listed as tentative and one as “cf.” (requiring further research). The updated checklist excludes 14 species that were listed in one or more of the three existing checklists and provides justifications for not including these species. Additionally, 11 unverifiable or wrongly identified species presented by non-peer-reviewed sources were not included in the checklist. Sixteen species with no verifiable records in the last 70 years were also identified. This review provides a comprehensive and authoritative checklist of Hesperiidae species in Bhutan.