Butterfly fauna (insecta: Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) and larval host plant in Bongaon town, West Bengal, India

Abstract

An appraisal of butterfly species diversity was carried out in the suburban town of Bongaon, southern West Bengal, India whose butterfly faunal diversity remained undocumented. A total of 76 species of butterflies were recorded from October 2018 to October 2019. The highest number of butterflies were recorded belonging to the family Nymphalidae (27 species), followed by Lycaenidae (21 species), Hesperiidae (13 species), Pieridae (8 species) and Papilionidae (7 species). Among the 76 butterfly species that have been recorded, nine species come under the protection category as per the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Over the study period, 54 species of larval host plants were also documented. This communication will be the first comprehensive work on butterflies of Bongaon town and serve as baseline data for future research on the butterfly.

New larval host plants for three butterfly (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea) species from Rahr region of West Bengal, India

“…Karmakar et al (2018) listed 64 host plant species from the Eastern Himalayas, a bulk of which are from the northern part of West Bengal. Biswas et al (2022) listed 54 larval host plants from Bongaon town (of North 24 Parganas district) in the Gangetic delta plains of southern West Bengal. While few recent works from West Bengal are adding to the present knowledge of larval host plants (Dey, 2020;Mukherjee, 2021;, a comprehensive list of larval host plants is yet to be prepared from the state.…”