The following is a list of the butterflies of India.
India has extremely diverse terrain, climate and vegetation, which comprises extremes of heat cold, desert and jungle, of low-lying plains and the highest mountains, of dryness and dampness, islands and continental areas, widely varying flora, and sharply marked seasons. India forms a large part of the Indomalayan biogeographical zone; many of the floral and faunal forms show Malayan affinities with some taxa being unique to the Indian region. In addition, India hosts three of the world's biodiversity hotspots: the Western Ghats, the Eastern Himalayas, and the hilly ranges bordering India and Myanmar, each having numerous endemic species. Accordingly, India's diverse and varied fauna include a rich variety of butterflies and moths. Brigadier William Harry Evans recorded approximately 1439 species of butterfly from British India, including Ceylon and Burma. After 1947, the rise of several new nations led to a reduction of the area forming part of India proper, and the number of species has been noted to be an estimated 1318 species.
Per-family lists
Six families of butterflies are represented in India. The quoted numbers of species per family are likely to evolve as a result of advances in taxonomy and in the collection of data regarding occurrence and distribution.
- Papilionidae - swallowtail butterflies (84 species)
- Hesperiidae - skipper butterflies (277 species)
- Coeliadinae (22 species)
- Pyrginae (51 species)
- Hesperiinae (133 species)
- Heteropterinae (1 species)
- Pieridae - yellow and white butterflies (81 species)
- Riodinidae - punches & judies (16 species)
- Lycaenidae - blues, hairstreaks and gossamer-winged butterflies (318 species)
- Nymphalidae - brush-footed butterflies (439 species)
- Danainae (26 species)
- Morphinae (20 species)
- Satyrinae (176 species)
- Limenitidinae (99 species)
- Libytheinae (3 species)
- Charaxinae (16 species)
- Calinaginae (3 species)
- Heliconiinae (27 species)
- Cyrestinae (10 species)
- Pseudergolinae (1 species)
- Biblidinae (4 species)
- Apaturinae (17 species)
- Nymphalinae (37 species)
Per-state lists
India has 28 states and 8 union territories. The list of butterflies for each state can be found using the index below:
States
- Andhra Pradesh
- Arunachal Pradesh
- Assam
- Bihar
- Chhattisgarh
- Goa
- Gujarat
- Haryana
- Himachal Pradesh
- Jammu and Kashmir
- Jharkhand
- Karnataka
- Kerala
- Madhya Pradesh
- Maharashtra
- Manipur
- Meghalaya
- Mizoram
- Nagaland
- Odisha
- Punjab
- Rajasthan
- Sikkim
- Tamil Nadu
- Telangana
- Tripura
- Uttar Pradesh
- Uttarakhand
- West Bengal
Union territories:
- Andaman and Nicobar Islands
- Chandigarh
- Dadra and Nagar Haveli
- Daman and Diu
- Lakshadweep
- Delhi
- Pondicherry
See also
References
- Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society. p. 1.
- Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society. p. 23.
- Cotton, Adam & Fric, Zdenek & Jit Gupta, Inder & Van Gasse, Paul & Inayoshi, Yutaka & Sin Khoon, Khew & G Kirton, Laurence & Larsen, Torben & Markhasiov, Maxim & Majumdar, Mridula & Pequin, Olivier & Rieger, Jiri & Motoki, Saito & P Smith, Colin & K Varshney, Rajendra & Smetacek, Peter. (2015). A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India. 10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164.
Other sources
- Beccaloni, George; Scoble, Malcolm; Kitching, Ian; Simonsen, Thomas; Robinson, Gaden; Pitkin, Brian; Hine, Adrian; Lyal, Chris. "The Global Lepidoptera Names Index (LepIndex)". Natural History Museum, London. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
- Collins, N. Mark; Morris, Michael G. (1985). Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World: The IUCN Red Data Book. Gland & Cambridge: IUCN. ISBN 978-2-88032-603-6 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society.
- Gay, Thomas; Kehimkar, Isaac David; Punetha, Jagdish Chandra (1992). Common Butterflies of India. Nature Guides. Bombay, India: World Wide Fund for Nature-India by Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195631647.
- Haribal, Meena (1992). The Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and Their Natural History. Gangtok, Sikkim, India: Sikkim Nature Conservation Foundation.
- Kunte, Krushnamegh (2000). Butterflies of Peninsular India. India, A Lifescape. Hyderabad, India: Universities Press. ISBN 978-8173713545.
- Kehimkar, I. (2008) The Book of Indian Butterflies. Bombay Natural History Society and Oxford University Press, Mumbai, India.
- Wynter-Blyth, Mark Alexander (1957). Butterflies of the Indian Region. Bombay, India: Bombay Natural History Society. ISBN 978-8170192329.
External links
- Butterflies of Meghalaya
- Oriental Nymphalidae
- Butterfly taxonomy
- "Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera".
- Indian Wildlife Act and scheduled species lists
- Butterflies of India
