A checklist of butterflies of Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka, India

Abstract

In a preliminary study on the butterflies of Dakshina Kannada District, located in the southwestern part of the Karnataka along the Western Ghats in Karnataka State in India, a total of 172 species of butterflies belonging to 117 genera, from six families was prepared by visiting various landscapes during the period September 2012 to December 2015. Of the various species recorded, Papilio clytia (Linnaeus), Papilio lio medon (Moore), Pachlio ptahector (Linnaeus), Castalius rosimon (Fabricius), Acytolepis puspa (Horsefield), Lethe europa (Fabricius), Neptis jumbah (Moore), Dophlae velina (Stoll), Hypolimnas misippus (Linnaeus) and Doleschallia bisaltide (Cramer) comes under the Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972. The present study provides the baseline data of butterfly species of Dakshina Kannada.

Keywords

• Butterflies
• Dakshina Kannada
• Wildlife (Protection) Act, Western Ghats.