List of butterflies of India

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.^[1] 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.^[2] 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.^[3]

Per-family lists

Butterfly diversity

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

• Butterfly
• Fauna of India
• List of butterflies of the Western Ghats

References

1. Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society. p. 1.
2. Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society. p. 23.
3. 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
  • Schedule 1
  • Schedule 2
• Butterflies of India