Dragonflies and Damselflies of Kerala (Keralathile Thumbikal)

Dragonflies and Damselflies of Kerala (Keralathile Thumbikal)
First photographic field guide by C G Kiran and David V Raju

Published by Tropical Institute of Ecological Sciences
www.ties.org.in

• Covering 120 species with color pictures and descriptions
• More than 660 photographs including color pictures of male, female, mating, unique behavioral patterns, larvae etc. 
• Species level identification using latest taxonomical inputs 
• Checklist covering 150 species including Scientific Name, common name and Malayalam names
• Morphometric table and flight season chart
• Simple language, scientific terms given in English and Malayalam
• International style layout and printing

Butterflies of Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary

The Eaglenest Wildilife Sanctuary in West Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh is one of India's hotspots of biodiversity. Since the discovery of the bird, the Bugun Liocichla by Dr. Ramana Athreya, a host of other new species, range extensions and new records of amphibians, reptiles, butterflies and moths have been discovered from Eaglenest. The Bugun Welfare Society (http://bugunwelfaresociety.webs.com/) runs eco-tourism in the area, providing employment to the local communities and an incentive to conserve the area. 

Since 2009, Sanjay Sondhi has been surveying lepidoptera fauna at Eaglenest. These surveys have revealed close to 200 species of butterflies and close to a 1,000 species of moths, many of them being range extensions and a few, new records for India such as the Bhutan's national butterfly-the Ludlow's Bhutan Glory Bhutanitis ludlowi. 

These butterfly and moth brochures are intended to promote eco-tourism at Eaglenest. Each brochure covers 85 species of butterflies and 85 species of moths. The contributions from sales from these brochures will go to the community fund of the Bugun Welfare Society. 

The brochures can be ordered as under by depositing a cheque/electronic transfer to

Bugun Welfare Society

a/c no.11775243383

Code.SBIN00003594

State Bank of India Tenga Valley Branch

West Kameng Dist.Arunachal Pradesh-790 115

Rs 100 for one brochure (butterflies or moths) (Rs 75 for the brochure plus Rs 25 for shipment)

Rs 185 for two brochures (butterflies and moths) (Rs 150 for the brochures plus Rs 35 for shipment)

with intimation to 

Sanjay Sondhi, sanjay.sondhi1@gmail.com 

and

Indi Glow, phuarung@gmail.com

Moths of Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary

The Eaglenest Wildilife Sanctuary in West Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh is one of India's hotspots of biodiversity. Since the discovery of the bird, the Bugun Liocichla by Dr. Ramana Athreya, a host of other new species, range extensions and new records of amphibians, reptiles, butterflies and moths have been discovered from Eaglenest. The Bugun Welfare Society (http://bugunwelfaresociety.webs.com/) runs eco-tourism in the area, providing employment to the local communities and an incentive to conserve the area. 

Since 2009, Sanjay Sondhi has been surveying lepidoptera fauna at Eaglenest. These surveys have revealed close to 200 species of butterflies and close to a 1,000 species of moths, many of them being range extensions and a few, new records for India such as the Bhutan's national butterfly-the Ludlow's Bhutan Glory Bhutanitis ludlowi. 

These butterfly and moth brochures are intended to promote eco-tourism at Eaglenest. Each brochure covers 85 species of butterflies and 85 species of moths. The contributions from sales from these brochures will go to the community fund of the Bugun Welfare Society. 

The brochures can be ordered as under by depositing a cheque/electronic transfer to

Bugun Welfare Society

a/c no.11775243383

Code.SBIN00003594

State Bank of India Tenga Valley Branch

West Kameng Dist.Arunachal Pradesh-790 115

Rs 100 for one brochure (butterflies or moths) (Rs 75 for the brochure plus Rs 25 for shipment)

Rs 185 for two brochures (butterflies and moths) (Rs 150 for the brochures plus Rs 35 for shipment)

with intimation to 

Sanjay Sondhi, sanjay.sondhi1@gmail.com 

and

Indi Glow, phuarung@gmail.com

Butterflies of the Garo Hills

Title: Butterflies of the Garo Hills
Authors: Sanjay Sondhi, Krushnamegh Kunte, Gaurav Agavekar, Rohan Lovalekar, and Kedar Tokekar
Publishers: Samrakshan Trust, Title Trust, and Indian Foundation for Butterflies.
Number of pages: 200
Number of species accounts: 324. This is out of the 339 species that had been recorded from the Garo Hills at the time of finalizing the book in March 2013. The missing species are certain Swifts and other Hesperiids that cannot be easily identified in the field.
Number of color images: 521
Token price: Rs. 500 (Rs. five hundred), plus shipping costs. 20% discount on orders of six copies or more.

Copies of the book can be ordered from any one of the following four local distributors/stockers:

Samrakshan Trust, Baghmara (Meghalaya): Kamal Medhi (balpakram@gmail.com, 8974-986-223) and Yaranajit Deka (yaranajit.samrakshan@gmail.com, 9402-396-570). Their phones often do not work, so it is best to contact them by email.

Sanjay Sondhi, Dehradun: sanjay.sondhi1@gmail.com, 9412-052-189.

Kedar Tokekar, Pune: tokekark@yahoo.co.in, 9970-167-351.

Krushnamegh Kunte, Bengaluru (=Bangalore): krushnamegh@ncbs.res.in, krushnamegh@ifoundbutterflies.org, (080) 2366-6085 (office), -6086 (lab), 9483-525-925 (mobile).

You can pay for the book by a bank transfer in Samrakshan's bank account (preferred method) or by cash to one of the above distributors:

Account holder name: Samrakshan Charitable Trust ET
Savings Bank Account Number: 32928955983
Bank Name: State Bank of India, Baghmara Branch
IFSC code: SBIN0004885
CIF Number: 86682627876

Please note that the book has been published with generous and full funding from the India Foundation and the Forests and Environment Department, Government of Meghalaya. The authors have decided not to take any royalty and the publishers have decided not to make any money on this book. However, we are selling this book for the token price of Rs. 500, with the understanding that all the proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Garo tribes in the South Garo Hills District of Meghalaya, where we have worked in the past and continue our research. Through the sale of this book we are trying to help Samrakshan Trust generate alternative source of revenue for the Garos from the very biodiverse forests that they hold. Samrakshan Trust has been doing this for several years in various ways to encourage the Garos to keep their forests rather than turn them over to illegal coal miners. Part of this effort is butterfly tourism in the Garo Hills, about which Yaranajit, Kamal or Sanjay can tell you more.

There was also a paper published
Kunte, K., Sondhi, S., Sangma, B. M., Lovalekar, R., Tokekar, K., & Agavekar, G. (2012). Butterflies of the Garo Hills of Meghalaya , northeastern India : their diversity and conservation. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 4(10), 2933–2992. Retrieved from http://www.threatenedtaxa.org/ZooPrintJournal/2012/September/o294512ix122933-2992.pdf

And a very interesting and educating discussion about identifications in this book in Journal of Threatened Taxa:

• Gogoi, M. (2013). Butterflies of the Garo Hills by S. Sondhi., K. Kunte, G. Agavekar, R. Lovalekar, K. Tokekar.(2013). Samrakshan Trust (New Delhi), Titli Trust (Dehradun) and Indian Foundation for Butterflies (Bengaluru), xvi+200pp. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 5(June), 4527–4528. Retrieved from http://threatenedtaxa.org/ZooPrintJournal/2013/June/Book_review.pdf
• Kunte, K., Agavekar, G., Sondhi, S., Lovalekar, R., & Tokekar, K. (2013). On the identification and misidentification of butterflies of the Garo Hills. … of Threatened Taxa, 5(July), 4616–4620. Retrieved from http://threatenedtaxa.org/ZooPrintJournal/2013/July/o371026vii134616-4620.pdf
• Gogoi, M. J. (2013). On the identification of Indian butterflies in the book on Butterflies of the Garo Hills. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 5(November), 5016–5018. Retrieved from http://www.threatenedtaxa.org/ZooPrintJournal/2013/November/o385526xi135016-5018.pdf
• Kunte, K., Sondhi, S., Agavekar, G., Lovalekar, R., & Tokekar, K. (2013). Final notes on the identification and misidentification of butterflies of the Garo Hills, 5(November), 5019–5020. Retrieved from http://www.threatenedtaxa.org/ZooPrintJournal/2013/November/o385626xi135019-5020.pdf

iNaturalist Projects documenting Biodiversity of India

Here are some projects for documenting biodiversity of India on iNaturalist.

IndianMoths

ButterflyIndia

DragonflyIndia

InsectIndia

SpiderIndia

InvertebrateIndia

ReptileIndia

Amphibians of India

FishIndia

BirdIndia

MammalIndia

FloraIndia

• Confirming / Suggesting identifications on iNaturalist

Confirming / Suggesting identifications on iNaturalist

As we have started using iNaturalist projects for posting our records, there is an interest in understanding how to use it effectively. 

To Confirming / Suggesting identifications on iNaturalist it is not sufficient to leave a comment in the Add a Comment box bellow the record. It is a good practice to add the identification, at taxonomic level (Family, Genus, Species etc.) we are comfortable with using either Identification Summery box on the right 

or  Add an Identification tab at bottom.

Once there, enter the name preferably scientific name of the organism in species box and click find. Website will display possible names. Pick the correct one and select save button bellow it. 

To change the identification follow the same steps, and the new identification will be saved accordingly. 

In case you do not find the right name on clicking Find try using Search external name providers right above Save button. If the species page is already not available on the website, we can use this option.

Use add a comment to appreciate the photographs or to ask questions and clarifications. 

The goal of this record creation is to get more and more Research Grade observations at best taxonomic level possible.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask on DiversityIndia groups or leave a comment here.

National Moth Week (NMW)

DiversityIndia is partnering with National Moth Week (NMW) for this years Moth documentation mission. It is proposed to celebrate NMW  from July 20th-28th, 2013.

NMW is an annual event to promote education and conservation through moth observation public events throughout the world. 

DiversityIndia and specially IndianMoths members would organize both public and private events to watch and document moths. 
Please register any events being planned using the registration form.

After the event post your observations on the forum of your choice YahooGroup,  Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, iNaturalist, IndiaBiodiversityPortal or Project Noah but preferably on website supporting geo-location and downloading records like iNaturalist or IBP.   

If you want to check the locations where the events are already planned check here.