Ethology of Some Butterflies and Moths of Jamshedpur

This book is all about Ethology of some butterflies and moths of Jamshedpur lifescape aims to make available user friendly accounts to nurture the study of living organisms as a part of teaching biology, promote studies, feed into a nationwide programmed of monitoring a range of taxa for conservation, economic significance and other related subjects in India.

Already worked on this interesting topic by me during my post-graduation (M.Sc. batch: 1997-1999, duration 1999 - 2001) and this inspired me to work on it further.

This study was undertaken to observe their behavior patterns that when they are active and they rest, when they take shelter after whole day's work, which flower juice (nectar) they like, which leaves are being eaten by caterpillar, how long it had taken them to develop from egg to caterpillar, caterpillar to pupa and finally into an adult, and how do they protect themselves from their predators like spider, birds, lizards etc.

This research was carried out from 18th of July 2007 to 26th April 2008 in Jamshedpur, and was conducted in 5 species (4 butterflies and 1 moth) [Mottled emigrant (Catopsilia pyranthe), Common mormon (Papilio polytes), Common Indian crow (Euploea core), Plain tiger (Danaus chrysippus) and Toadflax moth (Calophasia lunula)]. This study was carried out in the kitchen garden and garden of Swarn Vihar, garden and forest of Telco temple and Butterfly garden of zoological park of Jamshedpur to enumerate the butterfly and moth species in different habitats.

These insects are different in their physical characteristic like body size, color and wing size. The butterflies are very attractive and eye catching whereas moth is dull in appearance. Most of them could be seen in evergreen forest and gardens, whereas some are restricted to semiarid and arid woody vegetation. Some of them are poisonous and some are non-poisonous. They have a complicated life-cycle and include egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa, and adult.

I would like to suggest for further research in the area such as life span, number of dead eggs, failure of larva to fully pupate, failure of larva to survive till last instars due to unfavorable conditions, diseases and viral, bacterial and fungal infections.

Economically these insects are of great importance like yielding silk preparing cloths, fishing cords, parasites, insulating coils of telephones and wireless, tires of racing cars, ornaments and Unani medicines etc.

Butterflies and moths are very useful to men because they amuse us by their brilliant coloration and help in pollinating the crop plants and other flowering plants. We should not kill them for our profit because butterflies and moths are beautiful creatures gifted by nature. They fly with their vibrant colored wings soothing our eyes and minds. From a small child to the aged folk, all loves to watch them flying and feel happy. As mentioned by Great Mahatma Gandhi - it is true that-

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed."