Last updated: 24th May 2013
[This is work in progress and to be updated soon with more details]
[This is work in progress and to be updated soon with more details]
A few years back, I remember discussing with few friends that why don't we have invertebrate taxa as National symbols rather than just having Tiger and Peacock. Recently same topic was raised by some members on ButterflyIndia yahoo group. Over past week or so, many ideas are being shared and discussed.
First thing I did was to take a quick look around, to see if some countries actually have "National Butterflies" designated. I was pleasantly surprised to see that our neighbors Bhutan and Srilanka have done so in recent years.
National Butterflies of Countries
Bhutan Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory (Bhutanitis ludlowi)
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Birdwing (Troides darsius)
Source: Wikipedia
Malaysia Rajah Brooke's Birdwing (Trogonoptera brookiana)
Source: Wikipedia
Japan Japanese emperor (Sasakia charonda)
Source: Wikipedia
Costa Rica Blue Morpho (Morpho menelaus) *
Source: Wikipedia
* Source of information doubtful
[If you know of any more, please share the information in comments section and I would update it here.]
As for India, most people seem to agree that we do need a designated National Butterfly. Now the question is what should it be? Very quickly members have started sharing the view and ideas, including candidate species.
Mr Anuj Jain shared his experience with similar process currently in Singapore.
Mr. Maan Barua has been working on flagship species and has worked on particularly flagships for invertebrate conservation (Barua et. al. 2012) using butterflies.
Criteria
- Beautiful / Colorful
- Common throughout
- Endemic
- easy to recognize
- Conservation status / conservation action
Proposed Species (so far)
- Kaiser-i-hind (Teinopalpus imperialis)
- Common Mormon (Papilio polytes)
- Common Rose (Pachliopta aristolochiae)
- Crimson Rose butterfly (Pachliopta hector)
- Peacock Royal (Tajuria cippus)
- Common Jezebel (Delias eucharis)
- Paris Peacock (Papilio paris)
- Krishna Peacock (Papilio krishna)
- Malabar Banded Peacock (Papilio buddha)
- Blue Nawab (Charaxes schreiber)
- Southern Birdwing (Troides minos)
- Blue Pansy (Junonia orithya)
- Five-bar Swordtail (Graphium antiphates)
- Blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor)
- Yellow Gorgon (Meandrusa payeni)
- Common Birdwing (Troides helena)
If you have more suggestions on species, criteria for selection or any other suggestions, please leave comment on the blog.
References:
- Barua, M., Gurdak, D. J., Ahmed, R. A., & Tamuly, J. (2012). Selecting flagships for invertebrate conservation. Biodiversity and Conservation. doi:10.1007/s10531-012-0257-7
