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Summer Butterfly Study at Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve
Pavendhan A
[email protected]
Need for the Summer Study
After the successful Birds and Butterflies Survey at Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, dur-
ing December 2018, it was a long pause and we decided to check the presence of Birds
and Butterflies during summer times and just before the onset of South West Monsoon.
The discussion here will be restricted to Butterflies alone, however.
We have recorded 150 butterfly species from the last survey, which covered 12 locations
across all 7 ranges of the Reserve. The habitats too varied from scrub jungle to semi ever-
green forest and from <300 m to 2000 + m. The breakup of 150 species is Papilionidae
(11), Pieridae (21), Nymphalidae (50), Riodinidae (1), Lycaenidae (44) and Hesperiidae
(23).
Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve truly belongs to the Eastern Ghats and marks the end of
the same and only the Moyar Ridge divides the same from The Nilgiris, the Western
Ghats. It is home to numerous mammals, birds, butterflies and other life forms.
There is always need for studies at frequent intervals, if one must determine and maximise the checklist of species. Since the
last Survey was conducted during winter, a summer count was felt necessary by the STR management and TNBS, and instead
of covering all the 12 spots again, 5 spots have been carefully selected covering all habitat types. These spots were covered
for the presence of butterflies on 23 rd June 2019
The places chosen for the studies include a Semi-evergreen patch and scrub jungles (Talamalai), Scrub jungles (TN Palayam),
Dry deciduous Forests (Talawadi) and two Semi-evergreen patch again (Germalam & Hassanur). All in all, 6 studies were con-
ducted on these 5 spots by 6 teams accompanied by Forest Department staff. The exact transects used are not disclosed
from the confidentiality purpose.
Results
The following table provides family wise break up of no of species sighted against Tamil Nadu state target:
S. No Family Target Sighted
in
June 2019 1 Papilionidae 19 11 Updated list
of STR
12
2 Pieridae 32 18 21
3 Nymphalidae 96 38 58
4 Riodinidae 2 1 1
5 Lycaenidae 92 37 51
6 Hesperiidae 83 8 25
Total 324 113 168
It could be seen from the above table that a total of 113 species were sighted during the study with representation from all of
6 families. The Hesperiidae family (Skippers) were represented very poorly. The dominant families are Nymphalidae and Lycae-
nidae. For the habitat surveyed, Pieridae species were well represented in most Ranges. Papilionidae species were reasonably
represented too.
PATTAMPOOCHI
A TNBS MAGAZINE
WINGS 3 VEINS 4
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