Butterflies of Bhopal

Butterflies are beautiful, colored flying insects that have always mystified the nature lovers all over the world. Butterflies have large, brightly colored wings and a typical fluttering flight moving around from one flower to another in search of nectar. It belongs to the order Lepidoptera that also includes the Moths. Butterfly is holometabolous, i.e. it has a four-stage life cycle namely egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most of the butterflies are diurnal i.e. they are active during the day time and not at the night. They also act as the agent of pollination for some plant species.

In India, there are about 1200 species of butterflies (and moth) and the number of butterflies is alarmingly decreasing mostly because of habitat destruction and environmental changes. There are several species of butterflies found in Bhopal some of them are displayed below:

Striped Tiger	Baronet	Blue Tiger
Common Crow	Common grass Yellow	Lemon Pansy
Peacock Pansy	Common Sailor	Chocolate Pansy

By Parag Bakshi parag[at]bhopalbirds.com