A team of wildlife researchers and photographers has, for the first time, recorded and documented the complete life cycle of a rare Spotted Royal butterfly, scientifically known as Tajuria maculata, near Lakkidi in Wayanad.
The team comprising Umesh Pavukandi, David Raju, and V.K. Chandrasekharan recorded the complete life cycle of the species. They claimed that the study was being conducted for the first time in India.
Mr. Raju said the eggs of the butterfly were identified by Mr. Pavukandi. As many as 47 eggs were found on the leaves of the parasitic plant Loranthus ( Ithilkanni), attached to a coffee plant at a height of two metres from the ground. The sighting of the butterfly itself was rare, and to find the eggs in such large numbers was even rarer, he added.
He said the eggs were collected and fed with the same plant. They pupated on May 9, and after 11 days, a few of them emerged followed by the rest in the following days.
The other Royal butterflies, which are generally beautiful and rare, complete their life cycle on Loranthus plants. But unlike them, it had been observed that Spotted Royal butterflies arranged their eggs in clusters, and the hatching caterpillars fed on the leaves together and advanced in groups, he said.
Muhammad Jaffer Pallot, environmentalist and Senior Zoological Assistant, Zoological Survey of India, said though the species was found in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka in the Western Ghats region, the sighting of the butterfly was rare. It had been sighted in Kerala only a few times, he added.
Mr. Pallot said old British journals and books by entomologists mentioned the butterflies in the Western Ghats. Belonging to the Lycaenidae family, the butterfly was rediscovered in Kerala after around 100 years on October 2, 2010, by researcher V.C. Balakrishnan.
Mr. Pallot said the presence of the species was recently detected at Parambikulam, Ponmudi, and Idukki.
Though it had been sighted in the north-east, the one found in Kerala was of a different subspecies, he said, adding that the discovery of such ecologically important species would lead to further research, biodiversity studies, and conservation efforts.
