Dubai
A rare butterfly subspecies that reveals a mysterious link between the UAE and the Yemeni island of Socotra — 1,300 kilometres away — has been observed hatching by a wildlife expert.
Part of the Giant Skipper family of butterflies, the subspecies, Coeliades Anchises Jucunda — better known as the ‘One-pip Policeman’ was first seen in the region in 1998.
In the UAE, they are found only in a small part of Wadi Tarabat, a valley by the eastern side of the Jebel Hafeet mountain in Al Ain, and can also be found in Oman’s Musandam peninsula.
Over an 11-day period from April 29 until May 11, the butterfly subspecies was observed going through all four stages — from egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
When the eggs of the One-Pip Policeman hatch into a larva, better known as a caterpillar, the subspecies’ bright red and white markings make it look a little like a stripy sock or a candy cane.
The caterpillar then disappears into a sticky, spider-web-looking cocoon, known as a pupa, and emerges as an orange-bodied butterfly with brown wings.
To closely monitor the process, longtime wildlife expert Reza Khan, who works as the Principal Wildlife Specialist at Dubai Safari, took 12 of the larvae back to Dubai.
When two days later, on May 13, they emerged from the cocoon as butterflies, Khan released them back in Wadi Tarabat.
Fragile mystery
The key to unlocking the mystery of the One-Pip Policeman’s existence in the UAE could lie in a single rare species of shrub, Khan believes.
Far away in Socotra, a small island where one-third of plant life is found nowhere else on earth, the same butterflies are found hatching on Acridocarpus Orientalis. One Omani botanist believes that the shrub is divided into two subspecies, one of which provides the habitat for the One-Pip Policeman.
Known in the UAE as ‘Qafaf’ or ‘Qafa,’ the small, hairy-stemmed shrub, on which blossom yellow flowers, is only found in one small part of the Wadi Tarafat — a rare habitat for a rare subspecies.
“The distribution of plants and animals are sometimes very tricky,” said Khan. “Often reasoning becomes difficult if not impossible.”
The ongoing survival of the shrub and the butterfly — which the expert believes is the UAE’s rarest — depends on efforts to protect the local environment.
“Either loss of Qafas or lack of rain for few years could bring disaster to both, Qafas and the One-Pip Policeman,” he warned.
