Skip to main content

A Preliminary Study of Butterfly Diversity in Hilly Terrains of Ghatsila, Jharkhand, India

Proceedings of the Zoological Society volume 75, pages 262–268 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

A survey in and around Ghatsila in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand revealed the record of 72 butterfly species belonging to 6 families and 55 genera. Nymphalidae family dominated the recorded species (37.5%) followed by Lycaenidae (30.5%), Papilionidae (12.5%), Hesperiidae (9.72%), Pieridae (8.33%) and Riodinidae (1.38%). Different diversity indices showed high diversity in community structure. This study is likely to contribute towards the conservation of butterfly fauna in the area.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price includes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

References

  • Agarwala, B.K., and J. Majumder. 2019. Butterfly diversity assessment in protected areas inTripura, North Eastern India. Proceedings of the Zoological Society 73 (1): 68–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonebrake, T.C., L.C. Ponisio, C.L. Boggs, and P.R. Ehrlich. 2010. More than just indicators: a review of tropical butterfly ecology and conservation. Biological Conservation 143: 1831–1841.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Damgaard, C., and J. Weiner. 2000. Describing inequality in plant size or fecundity. Ecology 81 (4): 1139–1142. https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9658(2000)081[1139:DIIPSO]2.0.CO;2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eswaran, R., and P. Pramod. 2005. Structure of butterfly community of anaikaty Hills Western Ghats. Zoos Print Journal 20 (8): 1939–1942. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.ZPJ.1330.1939-42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, W.H. 1932. The Identification of Indian Butterflies—2nd Edition. Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay, x+454pp+32pl.

  • Gaonkar, H. 1996. Butterflies of the Western Ghats, India, including Sri Lanka: A biodiversity assessment of a threatened mountain system, 89. IISc, Bangalore and the Natural History Museum, London: Centre for Ecological Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harsh, S. 2014. Butterfly diversity of indian institute of forest management, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh India. Journal of Insects. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/254972.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heppner, J. 1998. Classification of Lepidoptera, part 1 introduction. Holarctic Lepidoptera 5: 148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jana, D., S. Giri, D.K. Tamili, and S.K. Chakraborty. 2013. Diversity of lepidopteran insects in the coastal regions of Midnapur (East), West Bengal, India. Indian Journal of Biological Sciences 19: 32–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kehimkar, I. 2008. The book of Indian Butterflies. Bombay Natural History Society. Mumbai: Oxford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koh, L.P. 2007. Impacts of land use change on Southeast Asian Forest butterflies: a review. Journal of Applied Ecology 44: 703–213. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2007.01324.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kunte, K., S. Sondhi, B.M. Sangma, R. Lovalekar, K. Tokekar, and G. Agavekar. 2012. Butterflies of the Garo Hills of Meghalaya, northeastern India: their diversity an conservation. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4 (10): 29332992. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2945.2933-92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, T.B. 2005. Rapid assessment of butterflies of draw river and Krokosua. In A biological assessment of the terrestrial ecosystems of the draw river, Bio-Tano, Tano Nimiri and Krokosua hills forest reserves, ed. J. McCullough, J. Decher, and D. Guba Kpelle. Chicago: Conservation International the University of Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawton, J.H., D.E. Bignell, B. Bolton, G.F. Bloemers, P.E. Eggleton, P.M. Hammond, M. Hodda, R.D. Holts, T.B. Larsen, N.A. Mawdsley, N.E. Stork, D.S. Srivastava, and A.D. Watt. 1998. Biodiversity inventories indicator taxa and effect of habitatmodification in tropical forest. Nature 391: 72–76.

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lodh, R., and B.K. Agarwala. 2015. Inventory of butterfly fauna (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) of Tripura, India, in the Indo-Myanmar biogeographical zone, with records of threatened taxa. Check List 11 (2): 1–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mandal, S. 2016. Butterflies of the rice research station and adjoining locality in Chinsurah, West Bengal India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8 (5): 8804–8813.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mukherjee, S.S., and A. Hossain. 2020. Role of morphological variables of the visitor butterfly species in relation to their foraging behaviour on Lantana camara: Implication for conservation. Acta Ecologica Sinica. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chnaes.2020.11.003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mukherjee, S., S. Banerjee, G.K. Saha, P. Basu, and G. Aditya. 2015. Butterfly diversity in Kolkata, India: an appraisal for conservation management. Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity 8 (3): 210–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pahari, P.R., N.P. Mishra, A. Sahoo, and T. Bhattacharya. 2018. A study on the butterfly diversity of Haldia industrial belt and adjacent rural area in Purba Medinipur District, West Bengal, India. World Scientific News 97: 207–224.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard, E. 1977. A method for assessing changes in the abundance of butterflies. Biological Conservation 12: 115–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pollard, E., D.O. Elias, M.J. Skelton, and J.A. Thomas. 1975. A method of assessing the abundance of butterflies in Monk’s wood national nature research in 1973. Entomologist’s Gazette 26: 79–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Posa, R.M.C., and N.S. Sodhi. 2006. Effects of anthropogenic land use on forest birds and butterflies in Subic Bay, Philippines. Biological Conservation 129: 256–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2005.10.041.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Samanta, S., D. Das, and S. Mandal. 2017. Butterfly fauna of Baghmundi, Purulia, West Bengal, India: a preliminary checklist. Journal of Threatened Taxa 9 (5): 10198–10207. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2841.9.5.10198-10207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sengupta, P., K. Banerjee, and N. Ghorai. 2014. Seasonal diversity of butterflies and their larval food plants in the surroundings of upper Neora Valley National Park, a sub-tropical broad leaved hill forest in the eastern Himalayan landscape, West Bengal, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 6: 5327–5342. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3446.5327-42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, A.P. 2009. Butterflies of Kedarnath musk deer reserve, Garhwal Himalaya. India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 1 (1): 37–48.

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, A.P. 2012. Lowland forest butterflies of the Sankosh river catchment. Bhutan. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4 (12): 3085–3102. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2625.3085-102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, J.A. 2005. Monitoring change in the abundance and distribution of insects using butterflies and other indicator groups. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London b: Biological Sciences 360 (1454): 339–357. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1585.

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Tiple, A.D. 2012. Butterfly species diversity, relative abundance and status in tropical forest research institute, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. Central India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4 (7): 2713–2717.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tiple, A.D., and A.M. Khurad. 2009. Butterfly species diversity, habitats and seasonal distribution in and around Nagpur City. Central India. World Journal of Zoology 4 (3): 153–62. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2656.2713-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verma, S.K. 2009. Species composition and seasonal variation of butterflies in Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary, Jharkhand. India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 1 (5): 295–297. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2126.295-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warren, M.S., D. Maes, C.A.M. van Swaay, P. Goffart, H.V. Dyck, N.A.D. Bourn, I. Wynhoff, D. Hoare, and S. Ellis. 2021. The decline of butterflies in Europe: problems, significance and possible solutions. Proceedings of National Academy of Science 118 (2): e2002551117. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2002551117.

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wynter-Blyth, M.A. 1957. Butterflies of the Indian Region. Bombay Natural History Society Bombay, 523pp.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely acknowledge Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, DST-FIST (SR/FST/LS-I/2018/173) and to DBT-BOOST No.118/14/BT(Estt)/1P-4/2013 for providing infrastructure support.

Funding

This investigation was self-financed.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Biomedical Engineering, IIT Ropar, Rupnagar, Punjab, 140001, India

    Debarun Patra & Soumyajit Roy

  2. Aix Marseille University, Universitè de Toulon, CNRS, IRD, MIO, UM 110, 13288, Marseille, France

    Subhadeep Chowdhury

  3. Department of Zoology, The University of Burdwan, Golapbag, West Bengal, 713104, India

    Asif Hossain

  4. Department of Geography, Raja NL Khan Women’s College, Midnapore, West Bengal, 721102, India

    Pravat Kumar Shit

  5. Department of Zoology, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, Ranchi Road, Purulia, West Bengal, 723104, India

    Surjyo Jyoti Biswas

Authors
  1. Debarun Patra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Soumyajit Roy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Subhadeep Chowdhury
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Asif Hossain
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Pravat Kumar Shit
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Surjyo Jyoti Biswas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

DP, SR, SC collected the field data and they contributed equally, PKS helped in constructing the map of the study area, SJB and AH participated in planning, designing, evaluation of the results and writing the manuscript. All authors participated in preparing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Surjyo Jyoti Biswas.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (RTF 255442 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Patra, D., Roy, S., Chowdhury, S. et al. A Preliminary Study of Butterfly Diversity in Hilly Terrains of Ghatsila, Jharkhand, India. Proc Zool Soc 75, 262–268 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-022-00439-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-022-00439-0

Keywords

  • Butterfly diversity
  • Ghatsila
  • Lepidoptera
  • Jharkhand
  • Semi-urban
  • Singhbhum