For the members of the Rhopalocera and Odonata Association of Rajapalayam (ROAR), Sunday outing to Coutrallam in Tenkasi district, proved lucky as three of them sighted the rare butterfly Palmking — for the first time in Tamil Nadu.
ROAR members Rakul Chandru, Dinesh Kumar and Manoj Prabhakaran went trekking into one of the reserve forest areas by the waterfalls when they spotted the butterfly resting on a palm leaf. It is the first recorded instance of the rare species in the State.
Thiruvananthapuram-based butterfly expert, Kalesh Sadasivan, told The Hindu that Palmking was first recorded in South India by British scientist H.S.Ferguson in 1891. More than a Century later, it was rediscovered in 2007 in Thenmala by C. Susanth and a year later lepidopterists George Mathews and Unnikrishnan P.. studied the life-stages of the Palmking and photographically documented it for the first time.
