The butterfly meet was a great experience especially for me since I was associating for the first time. Saw the Malabar Banded Swallowtail, which was a lifer for me. Some salient features :
- 33 participants confirmed and 32 attended.
- 108 Species butterflies were sighted.
- Weather played spoilsport on all days.
- Moth diversity was not too encouraging (actually people interested in moths were not many).
- Witnessed and documented the emergence of the Moon Moth (Actias selene).
- For the first time (I was told) managed to save money (Rs. 4,100/-). This will be deposited in the fund being created for the Fellowship.
- Though we saved, this was also the cheapest meet (Again, I was told)
- DCF (Wildlife), ACF and the local RFO were present for the inaugural session.
- We constituted the Rarest Catch of the Day Award, which was won by Rahul Natu (Black Prince), Amol Patwardhan (Malabar Banded Swallowtail) and Pinakin Karve (Malabar Banded Peacock & Gaudy Baron). They were gifted the Photographic Guide to Butterflies of Goa authored by yours truly.
- Excellent presentations were made by Amol Patwardhan, Shyam Ghate, Hemant Ogale, Mihir Chhatre, Anil Cherukupalli, Yuwraj Gurjar, Manchit Deshpande, Onkar Dharwadkar, Debra Glomb and Parag Rangnekar.
- Saw many frog species, 3 snakes and other insect forms. The sighting of the Hump-nosed Pit Viper was the highlight.
In all we had a great time. Thanks for Amol and Vijay for guiding during the planning phase.
Parag Rangnekar
Photo By : Buddiga Srinivasa Rao
