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Travancore Nature History Society

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Additions to Larval Host Plants of Butterflies of the Western Ghats, Kerala, Southern India (Rhopalocera, Lepidoptera): Part 2

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The study of butter?ies is incomplete without the documentation of their larval host plants. The earlier works in this realm were by Bell (1909–1927), Wynter-Blyth (1957), and Sevastopulo (1973), who wrote on the host plants of Indian Lepidoptera (Kalesh and Prakash 2007). After a gap of many years, works by Kunte (2000, 2006), and Kalesh and Prakash (2007) are adding new information on site-specific host plants, which is of tremendous importance for the conservation of butterflies of the Western Ghats.In the first part (Kalesh and Prakash 2007), we had reported new records of host plants for 25 species of butter?ies, especially of the southern Western Ghats. In this note, we report several additions to this ever-growing list of host plants of more than 60 butter?y species of the Western Ghats. This also includes host plant data for the narrowly endemic Travancore Evening Brown Parantirrhoea marshalli and Nilgiri Tiger Parantica nilgiriensis. The data presented here is the result of extensive ?eldwork, observations, and larval rearing for the past 10 years in the southern Western Ghats. The host plant is con?rmed only after successful completion of the lifecycle in all cases. The Floras referred for identi?cation of the larval hostplants are Blatter and Millard (1997), Gamble (1967), Ramarao (1914), Ravi and Mohanan (2004), Renuka (2000), Seethalakshmi and Muktesh Kumar (1998), Sivarajan and Mathew (1997), Subramanian (1995), and Nayar et al. (2006). Host plant utilization was checked against Kunte (2000, 2006), Kalesh and Prakash (2007), and Robinson et al. (2001).Taxonomy and scienti?c nomenclature of butter?ies follows Larsen (1987–1988). Further additions to this larval host plant list will appear in the third part of this series. Family Pieridae1. Eurema blanda silhetana: Sesbania grandi?ora (L.) Poiret (Fabaceae), Vanchiyoor, Thiruvananthapuram; August 2009. New record for India; recorded in Indonesia and Thailand earlier.2. Cepora nerissa phryne: Capparis brevispina DC., (Capparaceae), Kumarapuram, Thiruvananthapuram; July–August 2009.3. Belenois aurota: Capparis brevispina DC., (Capparaceae), Kumarapuram, Thiruvananthapuram; July–August 2009.4. Appias libythea libythea: Capparis brevispina DC., (Capparaceae), Cleome burmannii Wight & Arn., (Cleomaceae), Thiruvananthapuram; July–August 2009.5. Leptosia nina: Cleome burmanni Wight & Arn., (Cleomaceae), Thiruvananthapuram; July–August 2009.Family Nymphalidae6. Discophora lepida lepida: Ochlandra travancorica Benth. (Poaceae), Kallar valley, Thiruvananthapuram; July 2006. Ochlandra scriptoria (Dennst.) Fisch. (Poaceae), Kottiyoor reserve forests; October 2009.7. Amathusia phidippus phidippus: Calamus thwaitesii Becc. (Arecaceae), Kallar valley, Thiruvananthapuram; July 2010.8. Parantirrhoea marshalli: Ochlandra travancorica Benth. (Poaceae), Kallar valley, Thiruvananthapuram; July–October 2004–2011. Ochlandra scriptoria (Dennst.) Fisch. (Poaceae), Kottiyoor reserve forests; October 2010.9. Melanitis zitenius gokala: Ochlandra travancorica Benth. (Poaceae), Kallar valley, Thiruvananthapuram; October 2005. Ochlandra scriptoria (Dennst.) Fisch. (Poaceae), Thattekad; October 2007.10. Melanitis phedima varaha: Spodiopogon rhizophorus (Steud.) (Poaceae), Kallar valley, Thiruvananthapuram; October 2005. Setaria sp. (Poaceae), Ponmudi hills; November 2005.11. Lethe drypetis todara: Bambusa striata Lodd. ex Lindl. (Poaceae), Thiruvananthapuram; November 2004.12. Mycalesis oculus: Oplismenus compositus (L.) P. Beauv. (Poaceae), Mannavan shola, Idukky; May–June 2007.13. Orsotrianea medus mandata: Ischaemum indicum (Houtt.) Merrill (Poaceae), a small herbaceous grass in open places, edges of roads, Aakulam; August 2005.
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