Monday, October 21, 2013

New species of butterfly spotted in Mumbai

In late August, Rajendra Ovalekar was giving visitors a tour of his butterfly park in Thane. While enthusiasts were busy admiring common butterflies like the plain tiger and the common crow, Rajendra noticed an unusual green-and-red caterpillar on a giant milkweed plant. He alerted the butterfly experts from the Bombay Natural History Society, who were accompanying the group, and as they peered down at the caterpillar, their excitement mounted. The creature, surrounded by Red Tailor ants, closely resembled a Red Spot caterpillar and this would be its first sighting in Mumbai.

Soon, the caterpillar formed a chrysalis and on September 3, Ovalekar's suspicions were confirmed. The pupa had morphed into a full-grown orange-and-brown Red Spot, a butterfly usually found in the Western Ghats inKerala and Karnataka.

Mumbai is better known for ceaseless construction and endless traffic jams than as a butterfly hub but in the last decade many species that haven't been spotted in the city have appeared. For instance, the Abnormal Silverline was spotted for the first time in Mumbai two years ago. Also, the Commander butterfly was sighted in the early 1900s and then disappeared until five years ago when it turned up in the Hornbill House (BNHS building) compound. "We were delighted to see this handsome butterfly," says butterfly expert Isaac Kehimkar, author of 'The Book of Indian Butterflies'. Similarly, the Common Jay, a swallow-tail black-and-blue butterfly, was spotted after a gap of 20 years in 2005.

These appearances can in part be attributed to more vigilant butterfly watchers — the BNHS has been encouraging the growth of the community through programmes like 'Breakfast with Butterflies' and 'Butterfly Bounty'. Kehimkar also attributes the reappearance of the Common Jay and the Commander to the fact that there are more Kadam and False Ashoka trees in the city on which these butterflies like to lay their eggs.

But the appearance of the Red Spot is still puzzling. This butterfly doesn't have a preference for a particular tree or plant but instead lays its eggs in the nest of Red Tailor ants, who protect the caterpillar from becoming a wasp's gestational sac. As a reward, the caterpillar produces a sweet secretion for the ants to feed on — but all the while the caterpillar is feeding on Red Tailor ant babies.

Now thanks to this new phenomenon of butterflies thronging to Mumbai, we can observe this fascinating-if-dysfunctional relationship firsthand.

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