As many as 129 species of butterflies were recorded during a citizen science-based survey at Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) in Maharashtra's Nagpur district, an official said on Monday.
The reserve had organised its first butterfly survey between March 10 and 12 in collaboration with Tinsa Ecological Foundation, PTR's deputy director Maharashtra Dr Prabhunath Shukla said.
At least 105 volunteers from 11 states participated in the survey. Around half of the participants were faculty and college students of Guru Ghasidas University, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh; Kota University, Rajasthan and Nagpur University.
The purpose of the survey was to establish base line data for butterflies. Carrying out such surveys in different seasons will deduce the population and species dynamics across the annual cycle, he said.
"The survey was designed by technical partner Tinsa Ecological Foundation. Out of 65 camps, 42 were selected for survey using proportional random sampling method across seven ranges of PTR. Each camp was taken as centre, and three sampling trails covering major beat areas were selected for the survey that PTR used for the Carnivore Survey during All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) and first bird survey in January 2023," Shukla said.
Despite the lean (summer) session, participants recorded 129 species from five butterfly families with 49 new butterflies recorded in 10 new range extensions, he said. The new records of butterflies will again be confirmed with earlier works and references, he said.
"Some of the important species recorded included blue mormon, conjoined swift, common nawab, brown king crow, psych, tailed palm fly, crimson rose, common treebrown, grass demon, common lascar, etc," Shukla said.
Many species of spiders were also recorded near the camp area in east Pench, he said. Using the field data, Tinsa will prepare a technical report which will be used for conservation interventions by PTR in Maharashtra and follow up seasonal surveys, the official said.
