2
Participation in Salem Forest Division– Butterfly Survey
Pavendhan A
[email protected]
Salem Nature Society along with Salem Forest Division, Tamil Nadu Forest Department had conducted a Birds and Butterfly
Survey in all ranges of SFD between February 14th and 16th, 2020. We have learnt that this is a second such exercise, with the
last one was held in 2018.
From Coimbatore, our team comprising of Mr. Soundararaj S, Mr. Nagaraj T, Mr. Krishnamoorthy R (who works in Yercaud) and
I was assigned to Yercaud Range. We were one of the two teams assigned to the range. After the opening meeting held at
Salem, we reached the Yercaud Hills on the evening and stayed in the facility provided by the Forest Department.
Yercaud is a Hill station in Salem District, in Tamil Nadu, India. It is located in the Shevaroys range of hills in the Eastern Ghats.
It is situated at an altitude of 1515 metres (4970 ft) above sea level, and the highest point in Yercaud is the Servarayan temple,
at 5,326 feet (1,623 m). (Source: WIKI). The hills are part of the Eastern Ghats complex.
On Day 1, we had started our survey on time, and since it is a combined survey of birds and butterflies, our initial focus was on
birds until light sufficiently improved for the butterflies to be active. In fact as late as 9 AM, we could not sight a single
butterfly. The morning hours were spent on a long winding road stretching about 15 Km through coffee estates and habitation,
and we could notice only some spots are active with birds with long inactive stretches.
Once the Sun was sufficiently out, we decided to explore the reserved forest through the trekking road. The forest is of
deciduous in nature with rocky exposures. This place returned butterflies like Common Four-ring, Common Five-ring, Common
Pierrot, Oriental Grass Jewel and Pansies of all types except Grey. The bamboo shoots around the place ensured, we had a few
species which were dependent on bamboos like Indian Dartlet and Tamil Treebrown. Once the trekking path ended, we could
not proceed due to dense growth. We decided to end this segment here and took the long walk back to the main road.
The species count at this time was in twenties and many higher elevation species were missing. We decided to explore areas
where streams could be potentially present and drove for a few kilometers before we could spot a few places with accessible
stream and nectar plants. This place turned out to be the highlight of our 2 days survey.
In a short span of time, we could see Small Grass Yellows and Spotless Grass Yellows making a visit to the mud-puddling spot.
Other species which were sighted here include Great Eggfly, Commander, Transparent Six-Lineblue, Opaque Six-Lineblue,
White Hedge Blue, White-disc Hedge Blue, Rustic and Common Nawab. There were also other regular common butterflies
here.
This is also the place, where we were lucky to spot the rare Common
Tinsel butterfly. It flew down and sat on top of a leaf for a while before
flying off. This was a surprise sighting for us as the butterfly is traditionally
known to occur only in the Western Ghats of Peninsular India. Of course
the butterfly has large distribution from Sri Lanka to North-east India and
beyond. However, this is the known first record from the Eastern Ghats
hills of Tamil Nadu.
We have to now take a break for lunch and begin the second session after
some rest. We have scheduled to take a falls in the afternoon and as soon
as we reached the place, we were treated with a Black Prince. The
butterfly played a hide and seek game with us for a while but allowed us
to take a record shot. All other species here noted are of common
species. We ended the day one with 70 + species and made a well earned
rest.
On Day 2, we drove to a riverine patch, where as usual, the activities of
birds were observed and once sufficient daylight turned up, the birds
activities got reduced and butterfly activities gained momentum. In this
walk through the stream, we could add a few more important and
interesting sightings like Large Oakblue, Beak species, Common Mime,
Common Silverline, etc.
We ended the session around noon in order to return to Salem to submit
our observations and data, which we did promptly on time.
Common Tinsel - Catapaecilma major
PATTAMPOOCHI
A TNBS MAGAZINE
WINGS 4 VEINS 2
12