Rare Spotted Royal recorded in the Nilgiris after more than a century

The butterfly is characterised by a white underside with numerous black spots

A rare butterfly species– the Spotted Royal ( Tajuria maculata), which has not been recorded in the Nilgiris for over a century, was rediscovered again in the district by members of the Wynter-Blyth Association (WBA).

Manoj Sethumadhavan, a trustee from the WBA told The Hindu that the species was recorded in the Nilgiris in the late 1800s, and that there had been no records of it since then. “It is known to occur in the Northeast of India, and there have only been a handful of records of the species anywhere,” Mr. Sethumadhavan said and added that a few records of the butterfly exist in Kerala and Karnataka as well. The butterfly is characterised by a white underside with numerous black spots.

The Spotted Royal lives close to its host plant, which are native Loranthus species, said Vinod Sriramalu, another trustee from the WBA. The record of the butterfly was from the Kotagiri slopes, and Mr. Sriramalu hopes to document the entire life cycle of the species. “So far, no one has studied its entire life cycle. We at Wynter-Blyth Association hope to be the first ones to document it,” he said.

Mr. Sriramalu said there were not many threats to the habitat where the butterfly was found at present. He believes that a viable population of the Spotted Royal inhabits the Kotagiri slopes but has remained undetected for over a century due to a lack of focus on studying butterflies in the district.

“The reason that this species was ‘rediscovered’ in a sense, was because no one had done a prolonged survey in the Nilgiris. The Wynter-Blyth Association has been recording butterflies since 2015,” he said.