Biodiversity Meet, Nagaland 2018

Butterflies & moths, birds, odonates, spiders, amphibians & reptiles, cicadas and more…

Sukhai, Ghukhuyi & Kivikhu, Zunheboto District, Nagaland

Dates: 9th May to 16th May 2018

Costs: Rs.16,500/- per person (for Indian citizens), ex Dimapur, including food, stay vehicle hire on all days on first come, first served basis by transferring 50% of the contributory amount to the
bank account below:

Bank details:

Send your contributory amount to
Account name: TITLI
Bank name: State Bank of India
Address: Jakhan, Dehradun
Current account number: 31058150506
IFSC code: SBIN0006155

And email your deposit details to sanjay.sondhi1@gmail.com

Maximum capacity: 16 people

About the biodiversity meet

This Biodiversity Meet is being organised to learn and document the biodiversity of Sukhai, Ghukhuyi and Kivikhu villages in Zunheboto District, Nagaland. Pia Sethi and her team from the The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI) has been working in this landscape for the last three years. As an outcome of their efforts, the three villages above have voluntarily formed Community Conserved Areas (CCAs) in order to protect their forests and associated biodiversity. Since the beginning of 2017, Titli Trust has been supporting TERI to assess the area’s biodiversity, as well as to evaluate the opportunity to initiate nature-linked tourism as an incentive to conserve. More than 200 species of birds, 120 species of butterflies, 200 species of moths have already been documents with many endemics. At this point in time, there is no tourism infrastructure in this area, and the Biodiversity Meet participants will be staying in homes of villagers.

Meet organisers

The meeting is being organised on a voluntary basis by TERI, Titli Trust, DiversityIndia, NatureMates and Indian Foundation for Butterflies. All proceeds from the meet will go to the local communities.

Inclusions:

• Boarding at Sukhai, Ghukhuyi and Kivikhu villages.
• 3 meals per day (breakfast, lunch & dinner). Non vegetarian meals are included.
• Vehicle hire for the duration of the meet (4 people to a vehicle).
• Arranging for ILP’s.
• Local guides.

Exclusions:

• Personal expenses such as tips, phone bills, bottled water & bottled beverages.
• Rail and/or airfare to and from Dimapur.
• Insurance and medical claims.
• Lunch on the last day.

Participants need to arrive at Dimapur airport on 9th May 2018 by 1230 hrs.
Participants will be dropped off at Dimapur airport on 16th May 2018 by 1100 hrs.

Accommodation:

Village homes at Sukhai, Ghukhuyi and Kivikhu on a shared basis.

Visit day-to-day schedule:

• 9th May 2018: Departure from Dimapur airport at 1300 hrs. 10 our drive to Sukhai.
• 10, 11th May 2018: Sukhai village & surrounds. 11th May travel to Ghukhuyi (5 km, 20 minutes).
• 12th, 13th May 2018: Ghukhuyi & surrounds. 13th May travel to Kivikhu (25 km, 1.5 hours)
• 14, 15th May 2018: Kivikhu & surrounds. 15th May late afternoon travel to Wokha/Kohima.
• 16th May 2018: travel to Dimapur

Schedule of activities (based on participants):

• Brief about the area; interaction with the Sema tribe and their conservation plans.
• Trails for butterfly, bird and other faunal group daily.
• Moth/insect screens every night.
• “Herp” walks at night.
• Identification sessions for various species’ groups in the evening.
• Upload of information on various NCBS/IFB websites.

Contacts for this Biodiversity meet:

• Sanjay Sondhi, Titli Trust, sanjay.sondhi1@gmail.com, +91 9412052189
• Pia Sethi, TERI, pias@teri.res.in, +91 9811222321
• Vijay Barve, DiversityIndia, vijay.barve@gmail.com, +91 9845724832  (What'sApp and Telegram)
• Krushnamegh Kunte, IFoundButterflies, krushnamegh@ifoundbutterflies.org

Birds of India website launched

India has remarkable bird diversity, a long history of ornithology, and a strong community of birders. Thus, it is incredible that we do not have a dedicated, comprehensive and scholarly website on Indian birds. Birds of India website is an effort at developing such an online platform, providing a critical and freely available resource that has been sorely missing. It will draw upon the expertise of a large number of ornithologists and advanced birders, and contributions from amateur birders, naturalists and photographers, who together make up the Birds of India Consortium.

Birds of India website has three main objectives: (1) generate a library of carefully curated reference images of Indian birds, (2) consolidate available information on Indian birds and make it freely available on the website, and (3) encourage collection of new information on all aspects of Indian birds through rigorous natural history observations and ecological research. Like its sister websites, this website is heavily dependent on citizen scientists.

Birds of India website uses the powerful online framework developed by the Butterflies of India website. In the coming months and years, we will make this website mobile-friendly and develop a few apps that will help you contribute to this website through mobile devices. We will also think of ways to integrate and complement our efforts with other projects such as eBird. Just as critical as these developments, we want to significantly expand the Birds of India Consortium to include many more editors and reviewers who form the backbone of such a project. We invite more and more citizen scientists to contribute reference images and textual information that will make this website an indispensable reference on Indian birds. We hope that you will join us in developing this valuable resource, and strengthen citizen science in India.

-- Editors, Birds of India website,website, and the Birds of India Consortium. 1 November 2017.

Amphibians of India website launched

http://www.indianamphibians.org/

The ballooning male of the bush frog, Raorchestes jayarami, announced a very happy news today: there is now an Amphibians of India website that promises to be another resounding success in citizen science. Following the successful Facebook group, Reptiles and Amphibians of India, and inspired by the powerful online platform of the Butterflies of India website, we hope that this website will provide a critical resource on amphibian diversity that has been sorely missing in India. 

The Amphibians of India website has three main objectives: 

1. consolidate available information on diversity and distribution,
2. actively collect new information on all aspects of Indian amphibians through research
3. communicate this information with policy makers and work with various governing bodies so that the information is used to conserve amphibians and their habitats in India. 

Most of this work will be done as a collaborative scientific enterprise involving both professional and citizen scientists.
We also hope that our highly integrated community of amateur naturalists, professional scientists, educators and conservationists will both build this online platform and use the information generated here for effective conservation of Indian amphibians. Please email if you have any comments or wish to contribute to this website in various ways.

- Varad Giri, Sandeep Das, Akshay Khandekar, Purnendu Roy, and Krushnamegh Kunte
editors, Amphibians of India. 
11 September 2017.

The Moths of India website has 700 species

Hello everybody,

The Moths of India website has now reached 700 species, an incredible journey in less than two years. The website has also recorded more than 6,500 unique visitors, a number that is growing weekly, and bodes well for growing the “moth-ers” community in India and elsewhere. Even more encouraging is the number of contributors has increased, and many different people have started uploading moth species on the website.

Interesting records include

Comostola hauensteini, a new species described only in 2004. MOI website reports the first records from Paschimbanga and Arunachal Pradesh for this species.
http://www.mothsofindia.org/sp/356112/Comostola-hauensteini

The lovely day-flying moths Dysphania percota and Dysphania nelera. The website now has 4 species of Dysphania. 

http://www.mothsofindia.org/sp/356085/Dysphania-percota

http://www.mothsofindia.org/sp/356086/Dysphania-nelera

among many others.

Thanks to all the contributors and reviewers for making this happen.

And we are happy to report another sister website based on the architecture of these websites, http://www.indianreptiles.org/home.

The Moths of India team
http://www.mothsofindia.org/website-teams

Reptiles of India website launched

http://www.indianreptiles.org/

Following the incredible success of the Facebook group, Reptiles and Amphibians of India, of which all of you are hopefully members, we have taken the next step in not only bringing together the Indian herpetology community, but also providing them a critical resource that has been sorely missing. With the Reptiles of India website, we aim to work towards three main objectives: 

(1) consolidate available information on Indian reptiles and make it freely available on the website, 

(2) actively collect new information on all aspects of Indian reptiles through research, and 

(3) communicate this information with policy-makers and work with various governing bodies so that the information is used to conserve reptiles and their habitats in India. 

Like its sister websites, this website is heavily dependent on citizen scientists. 

This website is built upon the powerful online framework developed by the Butterflies of India website. We hope that we will flourish just as well as that website with the strong herpetologist community that exists in India. We also hope that we can come together as a strongly integrated community of amateur naturalists, professional scientists, educators and conservationists in both building this online platform and using the information generated here for effective conservation of Indian reptiles. Please email us if you have any comments, wish to contribute to this website, or want to join us in various capacities. 

 - Varad Giri, Akshay Khandekar, Nikhil Gaitonde, Purnendu Roy, and Krushnamegh Kunte, editors, Reptiles of India. 23 August 2017.

• Giri, V., A. Khandekar, N. Gaitonde, P. Roy, and K. Kunte. 2017. Latest News And Updates. In Giri, V., A. Khandekar, N. Gaitonde, P. Roy, and K. Kunte (eds.). Reptiles of India, v. 1.00. Indian Foundation for Butterflies.

Moths of India reaches 600 species

The Moths of India website has reached 600 species, an amazing achievement in just over 15 months since we went live. Some interesting moths posted in the last few months are...

 

The Zygaenid moth Psaphis euschemoides http://www.mothsofindia.org/sp/355920/Psaphis-euschemoides, which is an amazing mimic of another day flying Geometrid moth, the False Tiger MothDysphania militaris http://www.mothsofindia.org/sp/355022/Dysphania-militaris. Or is it the other way around?

 

 

The incredibly beautiful Zygaenid moth Campylotes-desgodinsi http://www.mothsofindia.org/sp/35591 2/Campylotes-desgodinsi

 

The Sea Buckthorn Hawkmoth Hyles hippophaes http://www.mothsofindia.org/sp/355943/Hyles-hippophaes, previously known from India only by a single specimen collected by Avinov in 1912. 

Orthobrachia hirowatarii, a species described in 2016 from China and Thailand, reported in India for the first time at http://www.mothsofindia.org/sp/355935/Orthobrachia-hirowatarii

 

The other highlight is that the number of contributors has increased to 40.

Keep “mothing" and contributing!

The Moths of India team

New butterfly species spotted in West Bengal

In a significant addition to the butterfly species in India, wildlife enthusiasts have found the Malayan Green Banded Peacock (Papilio palinurus), a beautiful specimen found in South East Asia, for the first time in India.

The butterfly with a dusty green base having a bluish green band spread over both wings in the shape of an arc is found in southern Myanmar and peninsular Thailand south-eastward into Borneo and the Philippines.

“We have spotted it at Chintamani Kar Bird Sanctuary in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas on a few occasions but were unable to confirm because it could not be photographed. Finally, after taking photographs and confirmation by experts, we can now safely declare that we have a new species from India,” Arjan Basu Roy, secretary of Nature Mates-Nature Club, told The Hindu.

The record of the newly found butterfly has been published by Arjan Basu Roy, Subhankar Patra and Krushnamegh Kunte on the website ifoundbutterflies.org.

In 2004, the butterfly was also recorded from Bangladesh by eminent lepidopterist T. Larsen. The sanctuary where the butterfly has been recorded has about 80 species of the butterflies, according to a recent survey. Referred to as the “flagship species,” butterflies are not only pollinators of flowering plants, but also useful in monitoring environmental changes.

While there are about 600 known species of butterflies in West Bengal, India is home to about 1,500 species of butterflies. With this new find, there has been an addition to different peacock butterflies which are characterised by their powdery green pigments. West Bengal is probably the only State which is home to a wide variety of peacock butterflies such as the rare Krishna Peacock, Blue Peacock, the relatively common Paris Peacock, Common Peacock and Common Banded Peacock. The only other Peacock butterfly found in the country is Buddha Peacock or Malabar Banded Peacock, which is endemic to south India.

Species page on Butterflies of India

New milestones for the Butterflies of India website

By Krushnamegh Kunte

I write with very exciting news. It was exactly five years ago in October-November 2009 that I started discussing the Butterflies of India website with friends and colleagues in India (I was in Boston those days). A couple of months later we had the first draft of the website online and by January 2011 we were running full steam. For me and perhaps for many of you, the past five years have yielded tremendous insights into butterfly distributions, seasonality, wing pattern variation and many other aspects of the natural history and biology of Indian butterflies through the images and observations that were shared on this ButterflyIndia yahoo group and then posted as a long-term record on the Butterflies of India website. We also reported several species of butterflies new to India, and dozens of rediscoveries. Overall, these five years have been very exciting times and remarkably productive in terms of advancing our current understanding of Indian butterflies. With considerable activity on this and various Facebook groups, much of which is increasingly leading to paper and online publications, it appears that things are now shaking after a decades-long stupor among Indian butterfly naturalists. The milestones that we have crossed recently on the Butterflies of India website, as evident from the 'BOI by the numbers', are indicative of this activity:

No. of species pages: 840
No. of lifecycle pages: 273
No. of identification keys: 5
Larval Host Plants: 209
No. of images: 18,114
No. of website visits: 7,00,517
No. of unique visitors Since 2010: 90,487

Recent species pages and images include, among many others, prominent contributions by Ashwini Bhatia, Rohan Lovalekar, Hemant Ogalekar and Milind Bhakare. We are looking forward to more. 

Check out the latest at: http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/history-of-species-pages-on-butterflies-of-india-website.

Butterflies of India crosses 800 species pages and 265 lifecycles

On that note, I am happy to announce that we have just crossed the 800 species pages mark on the Butterflies of India website. This has been long overdue but we were busy with other things in the past few months so it took some time. But now it's done. In the slow but steady march of the last 30-40 species pages leading up to the 800th species page (and beyond), we have had many exciting discoveries and records reported on the website and quickly made available to the larger butterfly-watching community soon after the discoveries. Some of the more exciting species pages have been in the following genera:

http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/#!/tx/441-Lethe-dp3

http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/#!/tx/470-Celaenorrhinus-dp3

http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/#!/tx/276-Choaspes-dp3

http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/#!/tx/313-Scobura-dp3

And some specific species:

Creteus cyrina Hewitson, 1876 – Nonsuch Palmer
http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/291-Creteus/Creteus-cyrina

Acupicta delicatum de Nicéville, 1887 – Dark Tinsel
http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/#!/sp/2828/Acupicta-delicatum 

See the full and current listing of species on the website at:

http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/history-of-species-pages-on-butterflies-of-india-website

There are also lots of early stages, especially some new ones by Tarun Karmakar, Saji and Paresh, and by Ashok's friends:

http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/lifecycles-on-butterflies-of-india-website

And of course, many new images of larval host plants:

http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/LHP/

-- Krushnamegh Kunte

Three new species pages, and notes on Erionota torus from Kerala

Krushnamegh Kunte reported on ButterflyIndia yahoo group:

We have three new and exciting species pages on the website:

Erionota torus – Rounded Palm-redeye: http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/293-Erionota/Erionota-torus

Lethe ramadeva – Single Silverstripe: http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/2755-Lethe/Lethe-ramadeva

Allotinus unicolor – Plain Mottle: http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/201-Allotinus/Allotinus-unicolor

Of these, E. torus is of special interest. This species was not known from peninsular India until now. The credit for this discovery goes to David Raju, who in August found its caterpillars devastating banana plantations around Thattekad in Kerala. Since then, several people have found the caterpillars in other parts of Kerala, so this is currently quite widespread in the coastal strip. Vivek is in the field surveying the current range of the species and damage done to the banana plantations, so we will know more about this soon. The case of Erinota torus is taxonomically interesting as well. People on Facebook have been using various names for it: Erionota acroleuca, Erionota acroleuca apex, Erionota hiraca, Erionota hiraca apex, Erionota hiraca apicalis, etc. I knew about the Kerala records from David’s first sightings and many people had asked me about this species in the past 40 days, but I wanted to confirm the species identity before I created the species page. I knew since last year after seeing specimens in the BMNH that Evans’s (1932, 1949) morphological key to Indian Erionota was not useful in separating the species. It is unfortunate that many people still blindly use these morphological keys without double-checking with other resources and without realizing that the only way to distinguish these species is by dissecting the male genitalia. To confirm the species identity, Kalesh and I recently dissected four males that we raised from caterpillars. Their genitalia match those of torus and no other species. Two of the dissections are available on the species page for your reference. From the variation that I have seen in torus in recent weeks and among all the species in the BMNH last year, it is clear that the external differences mentioned by Evans to separate torus, thrax, and hiraca (=acroleuca) are not reliable in distinguishing these species. The characteristics mentioned by Evans included the color of the UPFW apex, convexity of the FW termen and perhaps the color of the antennal club. That is, there is too much variation in these characters within species so that one cannot reliably distinguish between them from external characters alone. We will post images of male genitalia of other Indian Erionota on the website in due course.

Lethe ramadeva is very exciting due to the rarity of this species. I wonder whether this is the first ever photographic record of the species.

Congratulations to David and Anurag for these important and exciting discoveries!

Butterflies on your mind?

By Sunita Raghu

Published: 15th September 2013 12:00 AM

Last Updated: 13th September 2013 11:11 AM

Vijay Barve (Photo: Vinod Kumar T)

It was love at first sight. Vijay Barve remembers all too well, the first time he saw the pupa of a common crow butterfly. It was like a shiny gold pendant, glimmering on an oleander plant, he recalls. Before this, he had witnessed a butterfly lay eggs. And that was, probably, the moment that would direct the course of his life. The boy who had begun to observe the lifecycles of butterflies soon joined the ranks of bonafide butterfly lovers and made it his life’s mission to spread awareness about the ubiquitous, brightly winged insect.

It is hardly surprising that Vijay grew up to be a butterfly expert. Childhood comprised of weekend bird watching trips with parents who were avid nature lovers. Raised to admire and observe the natural world, Vijay’s nature education was quite thorough.

A master’s degree in computer science from Pune University, followed by a stint with a scientific and research organization FRLHT (Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Tradition), further cemented his closeness to nature. At FRLHT, Vijay was involved in the distribution mapping of medicinal plants. And with plants came butterflies as a particular butterfly makes its home only on a certain plant to lay eggs. Broadening his scope of interest, Vijay did a course in entomology from the Bombay Natural History Society, of which he is a life-long member.

In 2001, Vijay started the Butterfly India Yahoo group. This e-initiative gave a platform to butterfly lovers (it has 1,500 members at present) across the country to share pictures and information.

“We may have butterfly experts like Isaac Kehimkar, Krushnamegh Kunte, Peter Smetacek and many others in India, but it’s Vijay who brought us together,” says Kolkata-based butterfly specialist, Arjan Basu Roy. “If butterfly watching/photography has become a popular form of nature study in India, significant credit goes to him.” Vijay also launched DiversityIndia Yahoo group that focuses on small invertebrates.

Besides this, Vijay has also created and has been managing cyber communities of naturalists interested in different biodiversity such as SpiderIndia, DragonflyIndia, IndianMoths, AmphibianIndia, ReptileIndia, InsectIndia, InvertebrateIndia, WildflowerIndia, GernCareerIndia and GreenLifestyleIndia.

Things thus chugged along in the virtual world, until Vijay and his friends came up with the idea of butterfly meets. “It was sometime in 2004 when we had the first butterfly meet, one in Kerala at the Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary and another in Mumbai,” says Vijay. “Meets such as these fulfill a useful purpose—of bringing like-minded people together to do some fieldwork which led to sharing and learning techniques of identification, photography,” he explains. 

A job shift saw Vijay making his way to the University of Kansas, USA, where again he was able to coalesce his interest in biodiversity with his work. One experiment that he fondly remembers is the radio tagging of laboratory-raised monarch butterflies, a pioneering effort for sure. The monarch butterfly undertakes a spectacular migration, traversing thousands of kilometres from Canada to Mexico. “With our refined tracking system, we were able to track them for 10 miles,” he says.

Butterfly conservation, says Vijay, is essential. “The butterfly is an indicator species, it is sensitive to the environment. Greater numbers of butterflies in a region signify that the ecology is in good shape,” says Vijay, who lists the Blue Mormon butterfly as his favourite.

Vijay feels the best way to create interest in butterfly conservation is through the media and by constructing butterfly parks.

Original Post

A lilac lovely in the sky

MARIANNE DE NAZARETH

A brush with history: With a butterfly Photo: Nitin R.

Nitin couldn’t believe his luck when he spotted the Lilac Silverline at Hesaraghatta Lake; especially since the last sighting of this butterfly was in 1903

Most undergraduate’s only concern is whether they have the required percentage of attendance and giving in their assignments in the nick of time. And then, you have Nitin R. who is doing his second year BSc at St. Joseph's College, whose entire life revolves around his course. “I am interested in butterflies, dragonflies and wildlife photography,” says Nitin.

With great excitement, Nitin reveals the story of a sighting of a rare butterfly and the subsequent photograph. “I had been to Hesaraghatta Lake on the December 23 as a part of the team which was doing a rapid impact assessment study on the Hesarghatta Habitat. When I initially saw Silverlines there, I thought they were the Common Shot Silverlines (Spindasis ictis). But later I observed that these Silverlines had a different flight pattern and perching preference. So I photographed one male and sent it to Krushnamegh Kunte of GKVK, Bangalore. He identified it as the Lilac Silverline (Apharitis lilacinus) and told me that the last known sighting was in 1903.”

According to Nitin, this butterfly is known to frequent open grasslands and fields and there is no particular habit preference that has been established by now. So the chances of spotting this butterfly, is more on open grasslands, in the morning.

Nitin goes on to explain that this butterfly was first described by Moore in 1884, based on a single male specimen from the collection of the Indian Museum, Calcutta whose origin was unknown.

The description according to Marshall and De Niceville (1890) is that the upperside of the male butterfly is marked with pale iridescent blue. And, the colour off the ground on the underside varies a good deal, with some a primrose-yellow and others inclined to ochre, blending into brick red.

Seshadri K. S., an ecologist based at ATREE, Bangalore, says, “Even as there is dearth of knowledge on this rare find, the Hesaraghatta Tank bed, where it was observed is already at risk. Every weekend, one can see up to 15 photographers driving on the tank bed in cars. This invariably leads to crushing of the host plants for butterflies.”

Kunte, PhD Ramanujan Fellow and Reader at National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), says, “There are many butterfly species that had historically been reported as rare in places such as Bangalore, the Nilgiris, Sikkim and the Khasi Hills. Many of these species have not been recorded in a long time and few people know what they look like. One such species was the Lilac Silverline, which was reported from Bangalore in several old books. So Nitin’s records are a pleasant surprise and I am very glad that this tiny and beautiful butterfly has persisted.

Kunte says that these sightings prove that there still is a breeding population of this rare species, which is important because this species is legally protected in India under Schedule II of the Wildlife (Protection) Act.

He hopes that local NGOs, nature enthusiasts and the Karnataka Forest Department will come together to protect this habitat for the rare birds and butterflies that are found there.

Origonal Post

Athyma whitei: another butterfly species new to India

Dr. Krushnamegh Kunte reported on ButterflyIndia yahoo group today (8th November 2012):



I am happy to report another butterfly species that is new to India: Athyma whitei, which I call Blue-bordered Sergeant (it did not have an English name before):

ifoundbutterflies.org/144-athyma/athyma-whitei

Information about this species may be found under various tabs on the above species page. Images of the holotype of whitei, which is in the BMNH London, has also been included in the species page with permission from the BMNH.

Do let me know if you have photographs of similar Athyma from other parts of India. This species is not very well-known, so any new information will be useful.

Link to original message.

Mystical Bhutan Glory (Bhutanitis ludlowi) in India !

Dr. Krushnamegh Kunte reported on ButterflyIndia yahoo group today  (8th November 2012):


India now has two rather than one species of Bhutan Glory! I am very happy to report that the elusive Bhutanitis ludlowi, which was previously known only from E. Bhutan, has finally been spotted in India by Sanjay Sondhi, Pijush Dutta and Sujatha Padmanabhan:

http://ifoundbutterflies.org/54-bhutanitis/bhutanitis-ludlowi

Congratulations to those three on taking these very first Indian images of this very very rare butterfly, and for adding this species to the Indian butterfly fauna. You struck gold with this! These Indian records are particularly important because the species was rediscovered in Bhutan only in 2009 after the initial species description in 1942 based on the specimens collected in 1933-1934. You will find more information about this on the ludlowi species page under different tabs and on a few other websites.

I have now photographed all the five types of ludlowi at the BMNH London. Those images are also on the species page, with permission from the BMNH, along with Sanjay, Sujatha and Pijush’s images. Identification key to distinguish between lidderdalii and ludlowi is at:

http://ifoundbutterflies.org/54-bhutanitis/bhutanitis

For comparison, now we have a few images of wild butterflies and museum specimens on the lidderdalii page as well:

http://ifoundbutterflies.org/54-bhutanitis/bhutanitis-lidderdalii

I am sure that there will be more sightings of ludlowi in India in coming years. If you come across any, we would be pleased if you bring them to our attention and contribute good quality images to the above species pages. It will be good to build this resource for the benefit of the larger community.

Link to original message.

Giving hybrids some respect

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Marcus Kronforst (left) and Krushnamegh Kunte at Harvard’s FAS Center for Systems Biology used genetic analysis to examine the evolutionary history of the Appalachian tiger swallowtail, discovered in 2002. “Our work provides perhaps the first animal example that illustrates how hybrid species may be selectively favored when they inherit from their parent species-specific combinations of genes that underlie important ecological traits,” said Kunte, a postdoctoral fellow at the center.

Kunte et. al. recently discovered that the Appalachian tiger swallowtail butterfly evolved through the hybridization of Eastern and Canadian swallowtails. It is a rare example of hybrid speciation in an animal. Pictured here is a female Appalachian tiger swallowtail. Credit: Krushnamegh Kunte.

Harvard researchers are bringing new respectability to hybrids, showing that not all are evolutionary dead ends or short-lived mistakes and that some not only encompass the best traits of both parents, but create a unique mix that can endure as a separate species.

Researchers at Harvard’s FAS Center for Systems Biology used genetic analysis to examine the evolutionary history of a recently recognized species of butterfly, the Appalachian tiger swallowtail, discovered in 2002. The Harvard analysis confirmed what other researchers had suspected, that the butterfly was a hybrid of the Canadian tiger swallowtail and the more southern eastern tiger swallowtail. Further, the researchers showed that the hybrid species originated when males from the Canadian species mated with females from the south.

“Our work provides perhaps the first animal example that illustrates how hybrid species may be selectively favored when they inherit from their parent species-specific combinations of genes that underlie important ecological traits,” said Krushnamegh Kunte, a postdoctoral fellow at the center and lead author of the study, which was published online Sept. 8 in PLoS Genetics.

The research shows that the species formed in a burst of hybridization that likely occurred during the last interglacial period. As the range of the cold-adapted Canadian tiger swallowtail retreated north with the glaciers, the range of the warm climate-adapted eastern tiger swallowtail advanced northward and up into the Appalachian Mountains. The two species subsequently intermingled in the mountains during a changing climate.

Full Story on HarvardScience 

Related stories:
on TexasScience 
and National Science Foundation Press release 
 the Research article on PLoS Genetics

Expert lists butterflies- 3-year survey on Sikkim species

Expert lists butterflies- 3-year survey on Sikkim species:
TT, Gangtok, May 31: A Pune-based lepideptorist has taken up a project to update the database on butterflies found in Sikkim.

Krushnamegh Kunte, who did his masters degree in wildlife sciences from the Wildlife Institute of India, said according to the records, 650 species of butterflies have been found in Sikkim since the 1850’s.
But most of the data were collected at a time when the territory of the state extended up to Darjeeling in the south and Chumbi Valley in the north. Today the area of Sikkim is smaller and hence the figures need to be updated.

“According to historical records built up from the 1850’s, when the first work to survey the species began, there are around 650 butterflies in this region. There is no systematic data today about how many of them are still found in Sikkim because areas where the butterflies were found previously are not part of the state anymore. One major reason for my research is that I want to come up with an updated figure of how many species are found here,” said Kunte.

The researcher, who is a postdoctoral fellow with the FAS Centre for Systems Biology in Harvard University and the president of the Indian Foundation for Butterflies, finished a month-long survey recently.
The project was part of the three-year study that he intends to complete by 2013.

“We want to do a habitat mapping and population census which will be very handy for the state forest department for conservation and management plans,” said Kunte.

The researcher shared the findings of the survey with members of the Sikkim Ornithological Society and the Travel Agents’ Association of Sikkim in Gangtok yesterday.

Kunte showed the participants several pictures taken by the members of his team who went to Rolep and Rongli in the East district, Pabung Khola in the South district, Dentam in the West and Dzongu in the North district.

Around 200 species were found during the survey. The team spotted several highly endangered species listed in the Schedule I and II of the Wildlife Protection Act during the trip and some of them were the Scarce Jester, Eastern Courtier, Bhutan sergeant, Krishna Peacock and Scarce White Commodore.

“Eco-tourism and the concept of homestays can be promoted for conservation of butterflies and other wildlife species. Once the local community starts benefiting from tourists who come to see these species, naturally they will protect the wildlife species found in their surroundings,” he said.

Usha Lachungpa, senior research officer (wildlife) of the forest department, said the survey would be of great help as the government needs updated information.

“It will help us in habitat mapping and forest management,” she said.

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The butterfly effect

Author(s): Sayantan Bera

Issue: Jul 15, 2011

As India continues to lose its rich butterfly diversity at an alarming rate, a handful of individuals work towards creating newer habitats

Arjan Basu Roy at his laboratory in Kolkata (Photo: Sayantan Bera)If you happen to see a swarm of butterflies flying above the terrace of your office in the crowded Bengaluru city, count yourself lucky. You are witness to the largest annual butterfly migration in southern India. Every year between October and December, swarms of Dark Blue Tiger and Double Branded Brown Crow fly through the Bengaluru-Mysore area to their summer homes in the evergreen forests of Sahyadri in the Western Ghats. There they crowd in dense congregation for weeks, court and breed.
The Western Ghats, along with the Himalayas, the country’s north-east region and the Andaman Islands, are home to butterflies unique to India. With 1,800 known species and subspecies, the country boasts an impressive 10 per cent of the global biodiversity in butterfly.
Butterflies are crucial pollinators and their contribution to global agriculture is valued only next to honey bees. A fall in their population would also lead to a fall in their predator population like the wasps, spiders and birds.
A Harvard butterfly specialist
According to Krushnamegh Kunte, India’s leading lepidopterist and a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard, habitat destruction and deterioration are the foremost threats to butterfly population. “In India, widespread and excessive use of pesticides and herbicides has exacerbated the problem,” he says. Several intended or unintended human interferences, such as agriculture, fires and dams, alter forest structure and plant composition, or completely destroy butterfly habitats. This has had the most serious impacts in the eastern Himalayas and northeastern India, where butterfly habitats are vanishing at an alarming rate.

Widespread and excessive use of pesticides and herbicides in India has exacerbated the problem       — KRUSHNAMEGH KUNTE, India’s leading lepidopterist

Add to this the thriving illegal trade in butterflies. High altitude species like Kaisar-I-Hind, Bhutan glory, Pale Zezebel and Ladakh Banded Apollo can fetch up to Rs 20,000 in the international market. They are used by collectors to adorn greetings cards, paperweights and jewellery. One can also buy rare species over the Internet. A visit to www.insectdesigns.com can be chilling. Taking advantage of the fact that in most countries other than India, trade in butterflies is legal, the site makes available different varieties priced between US $2 and $330. In India, several cases were reported in the last decade where researchers and tourists from abroad were caught with huge consignments of dead insects, including butterflies. In 2008, for instance, two Czech nationals were caught with 2,000 specimens of larvae and insects collected from the Singalia National Park in north Bengal. The biodiversity hot spots of eastern Himalayas and the Western Ghats are the prime hunting grounds.
In April 2008, on a field trip to Sikkim, Kunte rediscovered the Scare Jester Butterfly—a species protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act implying it enjoys the same level of protection as the tiger. The species was not sighted in the last 90 years and for him the rediscovery emphasised “the need to conserve hitherto unprotected forest fragments as biodiversity parks”. Kunte believes common people can support butterflies. “A native sapling could be planted that butterflies use either as a larval host plant or as a nectar plant—lemons, mangoes, any native caper, pipevine, ficus (relatives of figs). People could maintain a small unattended patch in their gardens or neighbourhoods where wild plants are allowed to grow.”
If you are more ambitious and hardworking, and have some space, you could develop an exclusive butterfly garden, much like what Jyoti and Yashodan Heblekar have done in Goa or Arjan Basu Roy has done in West Bengal.

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The butterfly flutter

K. JESHI

Researchers across the world wonder at the beautiful and mysterious butterflies. K. Jeshi meets experts who were in the city recently for a seminar hosted by Bharathiar University

Photos: S. Siva Saravanan & M. Periasamy

Butterfly effect Harvard University's Krushnamegh Kunte
It is a large congregation, millions of butterflies — dark blue tigers, double-banded crows, common crows and blue tigers. They can be found on the branches of evergreen trees in the Western Ghats, especially the Nilgiris and the Anamalais, during the months of October and November. In January, they disperse and breed. And, just before the monsoons set in, the progeny of the second or the third generation migrate back to the Eastern Ghats, the land of their ancestors.
Mysterious
Biologists marvel at the phenomenon. Who tells them it is time to go back? Where do they get the signals from? The mystery continues. “In South India successive generations of butterflies move back and forth,” says Krushnamegh Kunte, researcher at Harvard University. “We do not know how they know where to go.” The milk weed butterflies (derived from the plant family with toxic saps they feed on), the white yellowish and creamy white emigrants (common and mottled), can be spotted in thousands right in our backyard and urban gardens. They take several days to pass through an area.
Researchers say the phenomenon is driven by the monsoons. May be, they avoid the intense rains and humidity (unfavourable for breeding) and migrate to the plains. “It is like a relay race over a period of six months,” says Isaac Kehimkar of the Bombay Natural History Society. Another notable migration is that of the crimson rose butterflies from Rameshwaram to Sri Lanka during December and January.
Photos: S. Siva Saravanan & M. Periasamy

Common emigrant butterflies engaged in mud puddling
Sikkim and the Himalayas are considered a Mecca of Butterflies. “We have 18,000 species of butterflies in the world. In India, we have roughly 1,250 species. Of which, you have 800 species in the Eastern Himalayas, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Manipur and Mizoram. About 335 are endemic to the Western Ghats,” says Kunte.
Species such as the southern bird wing (the largest butterfly in India), Malabar banded swallowtail, Malabar tree nymph, and Tamil cat 's eye and Travancore evening brown are found only in the Western Ghats.
Another significant aspect is ‘mud puddling'— where male butterflies absorb minerals, salt and water content from the wet soil into their bodies. This is transferred to the females during mating. “Thousands of males elbow each other. The ‘saltiest' male gets the female,” Isaac adds.
Some butterflies can be distasteful prey and can teach their predators an unpleasant lesson. They feed on the toxic alkaloids found in certain plants. When a hungry bird pecks on them, it triggers a fearful physiological reaction in the predator's body. “A great deal of sexual selection happens based on this. Females select the most distasteful males to ensure a safety of the progeny.”
Declining numbers
It is important to protect their habitats, which are on the decline. “Hundreds of butterfly species were recorded at the Biladu Pumping station spot in Mussoorie. Now, thanks to construction work, there is devastation a decline in butterfly population,” says Avtar Kaur Sidhu who works with the Zoological Society of India in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Butterflies also serve as biological indicators, of a healthy environment. Partnerships with local people, especially the tribals, is a good way to begin, they say. “In Kenyan forests, butterfly farming helps communities stay inside the forests. The pupae are exported to butterfly parks across Europe. They don't cut trees, don't kill animals and save the forests for butterflies, as it gives them money,” Isaac says.
At Ultapani in Assam, a hot spot for butterflies, the Bodo tribals work closely with the tourism industry. Also, the Bagua Tribals in Arunachal Pradesh. “They serve you continental food and take you to watch birds and butterflies.”
“Conservation involving tribal communities is critical. India has a rich diversity and endemicity of flora and fauna in regions such as the Western Ghats, Assam, North east Himalayas and the Naga Hills,” says Roger C. Kendrick of Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden Corporation, Hong Kong.
The researchers were in Coimbatore to participate at the 3rd Asian Lepidoptera conservation symposium and training programme, organized by the Department of Zoology of Bharathiar University in collaboration with ZOO Outreach Organisation.

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Butterfly India Meet to be Held in Goa

Written by BHIVA P PARAB

Thursday, 24 September 2009 01:54

t is time for butterfly lovers to rejoice, for the Butterfly India Meet will be held in Goa this year.

The meet, which will be held at Bondla from September 26 to September 30 will have field trips to the forests of Bondla. The programme also includes visits to the forests of Tambdi Surla and Netravali and the forests around the Dudhsagar Waterfall. During the meet various field workers will present their work at the evening session that will be held at the base-camp.
Butterflies are amongst the most beautiful creatures on earth. Goa possesses a great diversity in butterfly species. The butterflies in Goa belong to the Phylum Arthropoda (arthro meaning jointed or segmented and poda meaning feet or appendages) and Order Lepidotera (lepis meaning scale and pteron meaning wing). These insects are pollinating agents, besides they form a part of the food chain components of birds, spiders and other predatory insects.
The Moth Meet will be combined with the Butterfly India Meet and this will prove to be a good opportunity for butterfly and moths lovers of Goa as they will get a common platform to interact with butterfly lovers from all over the country.
“This 9th Annual Meet is set to be unique since it has been planned to combine the Moth Meet with the Butterfly meet. Light-trapping will be done at night to study moths and this event is important since the moth diversity in Goa is virtually unexplored and it is expected to arrive at a fairly comprehensive list for moths of Bondla,” said Mr Parag Rangnekar who is coordinating the meet informed. He further added, “This meet is a good opportunity for the butterfly and moth enthusiasts in Goa to learn from experts in the field.”
“The Ghats in Goa are the confluence of the Northern and the Southern Western Ghats, thus species representative of southern Ghats make their presence felt in Goa. Omkar Dharwadkar and I recently reported three butterflies for Goa hitherto known only to be found in Southern India. More detailed surveys are expected to throw light on more species that have not been reported till now,” Mr Rangnekar said.
“It all begun on October 4, 2001 when Mr Vijay Barve initiated the Butterfly India yahoo group for networking and sharing knowledge between butterfly researchers and enthusiasts. The group has grown and presently has 1064 members. It was during discussions over the e-group that a decision was made to organise the Butterfly India Meet in order to make a transition from the virtual world to the real one and actually meet on the field to share knowledge and experiences. The first meet was held in 2001,” he said
“The e-group has members from various fields, from serious researchers like Krushnamegh Kunte, field workers like Dr Kalesh, Kalluri Subramanian, Amol Patwardhan, Milind Bhakare to nature enthusiasts and wildlife photographers,” he added.

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