Geographically, the Western, Southern and North-Western parts of Tamil Nadu are hilly and rich in vegetation. The Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats meet at the Nilgiri hills. The Western Ghats dominate the entire western border with Kerala, effectively blocking much of the rain-bearing clouds of South est monsoon from entering the state. The Eastern parts are fertile Coastal Plains and the Northern parts are a mix of hills and plains. The Central and the South-Central regions are arid plains and receive less rainfall than the other regions (Source: WIKI).

It is quite natural that Tamil Nadu with its varied habitat can house a maximum of species that occur in Peninsular India. The Nature and Butterfly Society (TNBS) is aiming and working to systematically collect and record a number of butterfly species occurring in the state of Tamil Nadu in various habitats and at various times of the year. Towards this end, systematic data is being collected for more than 6years now mainly through the personal efforts of members through Butterfly walks held in various habitats.

The Nature and Butterfly Society (TNBS) has arrived at the target list of species based on recent Field guides, on-line resources available, direct field observations, research studies conducted in the recent time. It is possible that these lists are impacted as and when more information of them is obtained.

Tamil Nadu Butterfly Checklist v4.0

Jan 2022

Since Jan 2015, TNBS has been maintaining and updating the checklist for the state of Tamil Nadu. We had our first checklist shared with the public in Jan 2017 (with 323 species) and revised subsequently in December 2018 and December 2019.

The current revision contains 327 butterfly species and the following four species have since been added to the original list

1. Nacaduba sinhala ramasamii (Pale Ceylon 6-lineblue)

2. Catochrysops panormus (Silver Forget-me-not)

3. Tarucus balkanicus (Black-spotted Pierrot)

4. Tarucus callinara (Spotted Pierrot)

There are some species that are sighted once and we are waiting for further sightings to be added to the list and there are a few species that are mentioned in the field guides that are in the public domain, but for lack of direct sighting and evidence, those species have not been added to the list.

This list is purely based on TNBS internal guidelines set for the validation and we do not intend to place it against any already available checklists.

The Checklist link is provided in the below section. You may download and use it.

Regards

The Nature and Butterfly Society - TNBS