Rare species seen at Butterfly Park

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service  

Chandigarh, December 27

For the first  time,   a Blue Admiral butterfly, scientifically known as Kaniska canace, has   been spotted at the  Butterfly Park here.

Kulbhushan Kanwar, a butterfly enthusiast, who clicked the Blue Admiral butterfly in the park, said it was a large butterfly having a wingspan of 60-75 mm, dark body and a couple of white spots with distinctive blue stripes on the wings. It is a rapid flyer. When disturbed, it flies so fast that it is hard to be chased with eyes. But it again settles almost at the same or nearby place within a few seconds. 

Blue Admiral’s caterpillars have black and orange bodies with spiky hair and sprouting mushroom-like tufts on the whole body. This butterfly is found in northern areas, such as Siberia, west of Japan and Korea, Taiwan, Burma, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and Bhutan. In India, it is found from J&K to Arunachal Pradesh in the Northeast and in the hills of South India. 

Santosh Kumar, Chief Conservator  of Forest,   said it was the result of supplement nectar being made available at the Butterfly Park. "We have selected a number of spots for overripe fruits and prepared a bed for mud-pudding for butterflies, which provide them with necessary minerals. There are a number of species of butterflies that feed on bird droppings, dead animals, dump-patches and tree sap. We are trying to create a friendly atmosphere, so they can stay in the park and not come for breeding only. We have lots of host plants for butterfly breeding and more plants are in the pipe-line," he said. 

Kulbhushan Kanwar said there were other butterflies, such as Commander, Anomalous Nawab, Vagrant and Orange Oakleaf, that used to visit the park for breeding on the host plants but never settled here due to unavailability of a variety of nectar and minerals in spite of a lot of flowering. Anomalous Nawab, which was never seen before in the park, is now frequent visitor due to supplement nectar available here.