October 2012 - Journal of Threatened Taxa

Butterflies of Sankosh RiverA.P. Singh© Arun Singh © Arun SinghImage 58. Chocolate DemonAncistroides nigritaImage 57. Restricted DemonNotocrypta curvifasciaa ‘rare’ species in India (Evans 1932).CONCLUSIONHigh value of ‘Simpson’s index ’ (0.8929–0.9687)points to the area having high variation. A stretchof ca. 12km monitored during the 18-day samplingrevealed as many as 213 species and had the potentialof adding many more species. The list provided hereis in no way complete but represents ca. 2/3 speciesfound in these tracts in the study area and ca. ¼ of thespecies estimated from Bhutan. Besides, 12 taxa thatare ‘rare’ in occurrence throughout their distributionrange and worthy of conservation were also recordedin this subtropical lowland forest tract. Also, a goodnumber of butterfly species were present during allthe five seasons (93±12 species per season; range= 66–129 species) which is a good indicator of thepotential of this area for butterfly ecotourism, thatneeds to be explored. ‘Biodiversity offsets’ such asbutterfly conservatories or even a butterfly park canbe established here for conserving the ‘rare’ speciesand promoting ecotourism. Thus, the present studyis a way forward to bridge the remaining gaps todayin documenting the complete butterfly fauna of thearea, identifying sites and species of conservationconcerns in the subtropical lowland forests of EasternHimalaya.REFERENCESChoudhury, K. (2010). Rediscovery of two rare butterfliesPapilio elephenor Doubleday, 1845 and Shijimia mooreiLeech, 1889 from proposed Ripu-Chirang WildlifeSanctuary, Assam, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2(4):831–834.D’Abrera, B. (1982). Butterflies of the Oriental Region - PartI. Papilionidae, Pieridae & Danaidae. Hill House, Victoria,Australia, 244pp.D’Abrera, B. (1985). Butterflies of the Oriental Region—PartII. Nymphalidae, Satyridae & Amathusiidae. Hill House,Victoria, Australia, 534pp.D’Abrera, B. (1986). Butterflies of the Oriental Region—Part III. Lycaenidae & Riodinidae. Hill House, Victoria,Australia, 672pp.Simpson, E.H. (1949). Measurement of diversity. Nature 163:688 (http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/biogeog/SIMP1949.htm).Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies—2nd edition. Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay464pp.Haribal, M. (1992). The Butterflies of Sikkim Himalayaand their Natural History. Sikkim Nature ConservationFoundation, Sikkim, 217pp.Inskipp, C., T. Inskipp & R.Grimmette (1999). Birds ofBhutan. Timeless Books, New Delhi, 192pp.IUCN (2010). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.Version 2010.4. . Downloaded on08 February 2011.Kehimkar, I. (2008). The Book of Indian Butterflies. BNHS,Oxford University. Delhi Press, 497pp.McAllister, D.E., J.F. Craig, N. Davidson, S. Delany &M. Seddon (2001). Biodiversity Impacts of Large Dams.Background Paper Nr. 1. Prepared for IUCN/UNEP/WCD, 1–68pp. (http://intranet.iucn.org/webfiles/doc/archive/2001/IUCN850.PDF).Mishra, G. (2009). Environmental Impact of large dams. InDams, Structures and Water Resources LINK.Singh, A.P. & R.S. Bhandari (2003). Butterfly diversity inJournal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | October 2012 | 4(12): 3085–31023101