Hugged by clouds and nestling in the Western Ghats, the pristine hills of the Meghamalai in Tamil Nadu have thrown up a new species of ‘silverline’ butterflies.
Lepidopterists from Tamil Nadu and Kerala stumbled upon the new species, Cigaritis meghamalaiensis, from the biodiversity-rich hills of the Periyar landscape during an expedition conducted in 2021. It has become the first butterfly species to be described from the Western Ghats in 33 years.
The researchers from the Thiruvananthapuram-based Travancore Nature History Society (TNHS) and Vanam Trust, Theni, had first come across the distinct species belonging to the Cigaritis genus in the high elevations of Periyar in Idukki in 2018. Further explorations have revealed the species to be confined to the Meghamalais and the adjoining Periyar Tiger Reserve. The findings have been described in the peer-reviewed journal Entomon.
