BOOKS
Here are a few books that would be of help to amateur butterfly enthusiasts.
- Butterflies of Bengaluru – Dr Krushnamegh Kunte & Nitin R
This book focusing on butterflies of Bengaluru, was brought out by the two experts from National Center for Biological Sciences, in collaboration with Karnataka Forest Department. It is a very handy book with pictures of 179 species capture in and around Bengaluru.
- A guide to butterflies of Western Ghats – Milind Bhakare & Hemant Ogale
This is an excellent guide with brilliant photographs. It lists 346 species with five thousand high quality photographs. It also covers life cycles of many species. The book provides id cues to most common species, including the difficult skipper category.
- Butterflies of peninsular India- Dr Krushnamegh Kunte
A field guide for butterfly species of peninsular India. Written by the foremost butterfly scientist of India, Dr Kunte. About 200 species are described with sketches and photographs.
- The Book of Indian butterflies – Isaac Kehimkar
One of the first field guides of recent times published by Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). Multiple editions of this guide are available. It describes 734 species of butterflies found in the Indian sub-continent.
- Butterflies of Indian Region – M A Wynter-Blyth
Wynter-Blyth was a British teacher and naturalist who published this field guide on butterflies of Indian region after two decades of study. It was originally published in the 1880s. This seminal work is still considered the classic reference book for Indian butterflies.
- Identification of Indian butterflies – Col W H Evans
Col Evans (later Brig Evans) was with the British army. He was born in India and spent a large part of his life here in service. He continued his study of lepidoptera throughout his life. Identification of Indian butterflies was published in the Journal of BNHS from 1923 to 1927. It was later brought out as a book.
- Publications of T R BELL / E H Aitken in the Journal of Bombay Natural History Society are also useful reference material.
WEBSITES
- IFB (IFoundButterflies) https://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/home – A rich online butterfly resource which has one lakh reference images. It is the best resource if you want to compare your images or a butterfly that you observed with reference images. The website grows by contribution of citizen scientists who contribute images and information.
- iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org) A global community where people upload biodiversity data. It is a very good site to get identification of any plant / animal observation. The Artificial Intelligence driven id mechanism works very well. Community is quite vibrant and one can expect good support from fellow naturalists.
- Butterflies of India Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/ButterfliesIndia ): A large community of butterfly enthusiasts from all over the country. Very helpful if you would like to share photographs or request for identification.
- Bangalore Butterfly Club Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/BangaloreButterflyClub/ : Facebook page of butterfly enthusiasts of Bengaluru
- Butterflies of Singapore (https://butterflycircle.blogspot.com ) : An excellent online resource for reference descriptions and photographs, including lifecycles. The site list Singapore butterflies, but since there is overlap in the species, lots of information would be relevant.
