Preliminary Study on Butterflies of Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary: a Checklist with Three New Records for Orissa, India

Abstract

62 species belonging to 43 genera representing five families of the order Lepidoptera were recorded from Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary, Orissa. Family Nymphalidae was dominant with 20 genera having 28 species followed by Papilionidae (11), Pieridae (9), Lycaenidae (9) and Hesperiidae, represented by five species. Analysis of encounter rates revealed the fact that common Indian crow, common tiger, common grass yellow, common rose, pea blue, tawny coster, common evening brown were widespread species, where 18 species were listed as very common, 31 species as common and 13 species as rare inside the sanctuary. During the study period, three species of butterflies including Banded tree brown, Fluffy tit and Common tit were observed from the sanctuary first time.