Validation report on some studies on Butterflies and their diversity – around Chennai
Vikas Madhav Nagarajan madhavvikas @ gmail . com
Chennai city is located in the North East of Tamil Nadu . It is one of the few Metropolitan cities that have some historical data with regard to butterflies . Most of the studies with checklist have been done during the year 2000 to 2014 . Most of these checklists have been prepared during one year studies in a particular locality in Chennai city . Only one of the checklists deals with the entire Chennai city and another deals with Thiruvallur district . These checklist have been done by various persons including researchers who have a background in entomology , zoology or biology . This article gives a critical appraisal of various the checklists of the studies for the purpose of validation
The purpose of validation of these records is : - To check for rare species to include in the Chennai checklist To verify old records that may not have enough evidence to support their claim To filter out mistakes in the lists published and note the common mistakes made .
Madras , Chennai : A 400-year Record of the First City of Modern India , Volume 1-Some butterfly species recorded in IIT Campus This was a small Annexure in the 400-year-old catalogue of Madras city . The list has no systematic order and lists the various species recorded by Ruth Paul Raj in the Madras Christian College ( Expand ) also Few records which are treated as important are tricolour flat , Pale grass blue , common blue bottle , suffused snow flat , South Indian cruiser ,, Common Nawab and Tamil bush Brown . There is a mention of pale Palm Dart . This species is easily confused with the more likely dark palm dart . Hence without any notes or photographic evidence or recent reports . I choose to exclude this from the Chennai checklist .
Diversity and community structure of butterfly of Arignar Anna zoological Park , Chennai , Tamil Nadu Authors : D Rajagopal , M shaker , A . Manimozhi , N . Basker and G . Archunan This list was published in 2011 . The investigation was carried out on the diversity of butterfly fauna and select localities of conservation breeding centre of Arignar Anna Zoological Park . This was published in the Journal of environmental biology . Few errors in the list are pretty glaring to the onlooker .
They have mentioned the presence of Bright Babul blue ( misspelt as ’ Aright Babul blue ’ in the list ) in the park under the family of Nymphalidae instead of Lycaenidae .
Several species like red Helen , chocolate albatross and Indian cabbage white have been recorded as common species , while in reality the species are very rare in Chennai city No notes on five bar swordtail , hence this record is not included in the Chennai checklist . The white Bar bush Brown , chestnut tiger , medus brown ( Nigger ) , baby five ring and Palani four-ring are highly unlikely in Chennai , Hence without any photo documentation or specimen collection or small note on the species I choose to exclude these species from the Chennai checklist .
The white tipped line blue might have been seen . However , photo verification is needed . The Tailless line blue is the most likely candidate in that area .
Diversity and status of butterflies in the city of Chennai , Tamilnadu Authors : Thangapandian , A Ganesh , P RamRaj , C SelvaKumar , Janarthanan This list was published in the entomology Academy of India ' s journal – Hexapoda . It was published in the year 2014 . The survey and status assessment of butterflies was undertaken in the city of Chennai from November 2014 two April 2014 ( according to them , might have been November 2013 ). The list has few important species like the common Guava blue , Grey pansy , brown King Crow . The specimens have been collected , hence easily verifiable . The dark evening brown specimen is unclear . The white Bar bush Brown and conjoined Swift have been misidentified . Few common species like Tailed jay , common Jay , yellow orange tip and common wanderer have been listed as rare ! The two jays are commonly seen throughout Chennai , while the yellow orange tip and common wanderer are locally common in Chennai during this season of survey . These rare records hence will not be included due to insufficient evidence .