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Migration Update: September 2018
The migration of Milkweed butterflies predominantly along with few other species towards Western Ghats and oth-
er intended places have begun exactly on 1st September 2018 and have been reported until 15th September from
a few areas of Tamil Nadu. The districts where these movements have been reported are Salem (from Yercaud
hills), Chennai and Madurai. Districts like Coimbatore, The Nilgiris, Thiruppur and few districts down South which
usually see these movements are waiting and no movement is reported so far. This is however a preliminary obser-
vation and a detailed observation will be done until Oct/ Nov and we shall file a detailed observation in the forth-
coming issues. The consolidated information available on the migration history with TNBS is given below for a ready
reference.
Migration from EG &
Plains to the WG up to
2017
The records of TNBS from
the year 2013 shows that
Sep/ Oct are the months
usually the Milkweed but-
terflies undertook their
journey from Eastern
Ghats and Plains to the
Western Ghats. The year
2016 however saw no mi-
gration due to drought and
failed monsoon and conse-
quently the reverse migra-
tion was also a failure on
the subsequent year 2017.
2018 is being currently
observed for this.
Migration from WG to the
plains up to 2018
TNBS started recording the
movement of Milkweed
butterflies from the West-
ern Ghats to the plains
from 2013, and the obser-
vation shows that except
for the year 2017, where
the migration was given a
miss by them, it fairly fol-
lowed an April month
schedule and in 2018, it
was an early downward
movement starting in the
late March. The 2018 also
saw large movement of
Lime Butterflies in some
part of Tamil Nadu
PATTAMPOOCHI
A TNBS MAGAZINE
WINGS 2 VEINS 4
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