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Butterfly Migration 2018: An update
Crimson Rose Migration
Crimson Rose (Pachliopta hector Linnaeus, 1758) is known for its migratory/ dispersal movement behaviour and interestingly
to Sri Lanka via Rameswaram. There are references for the same in the following books:
The Butterflies of Ceylon, by Ormiston W (Year:1924)
The Butterfly Fauna of Ceylon, by L. G. Ollyett Woodhouse (Year:1942)
Ormiston recorded of seeing fair number of crimson rose butterflies “far out to sea, off the Indian and Ceylon coasts” in No-
vember 1914 and stated further that several of them came on board the ship.
The pre-history knowledge of these stopped there and not much information is available in the recent past.
Coming to the recent years, Crimson Rose movement from Rameswaram to Sri Lankan coast have been reported including the
current observation by Rohit Girotra (Tamil Nadu Butterflies FB Page dated xx.10.2018). Observations from Chennai too (Rama
Neelamegam, Vikas Madhav, et al.,) have observed their movement. Interestingly, Coimbatore too saw its movement in hun-
dreds in 2017 (observation by Hema Mohandas).
In this context, We were curious to know if really these migrating specimens from Rameswaram coast reach Sri Lankan coast,
and if yes, when and where? We have posted this query on the on-line platform called “Butterfly Interest Group of Sri Lanka”.
Interestingly, we have got some good response and we sincerely thank here Mr. Haneesh Km in tagging a few of his known
friends out there for their responses.
We summarise below the observations from all of them:
At least, for the last 10 years or so, Crimson Rose heading towards Sri Lankan coast from Indian Coast is observed
It is likely that these are Rameswaram Coast and Mannar area (especially through Adam’ bridge island)
Given the fact that the distance is just 30 Km, it is quite normal that they do these easily and hence it need not be consid-
ered as migration (asking people to understand metapopulation theory) and may be the species urge to disperse.
Reverse migration: not much information from them
There are other species too migrating along with them especially among them are Danaid Eggfly.
One of them wanted to tag the CRs flying towards Sri Lanka, so that they can do the population genetical analysis which
they are already doing for the local population out there.
Acknowledgement: Moditha Hiranya Kodikara Arachchi , Samitha Harischandra, Chathura Udayanga, Tharanga Aluthwattha,
Hemachandra Kularatne, Tharindu Ranasinghe, Himesh Dilruwan Jayasinghe, Tharaka S Priyadarshana, George van der Poorten
and many more. All members of Butterfly Interest Group of Sri Lanka.
PATTAMPOOCHI
A TNBS MAGAZINE
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