Winged beauties
KUMARAN SATHASIVAM
THE BOOK OF INDIAN BUTTERFLIES: Isaac Kehimkar; Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Road, Mumbai 400001 and Oxford University Press, Oxford House, Apollo Bunder, Mumbai-400039. Rs. 1500.
Butterflies, along with birds, occupy a unique position in people’s perceptions of the animal kingdom. Butterflies represent all that is aesthetic and mild in nature striking as they are in appearance and inoffensive in character.
Bird watching is an extremely popular hobby, but strangely the study of butterflies from the naturalist’s perspective has been slow in gaining momentum. Towards the end of the 19th century, Indian butterflies did not even have English or common names but only “long, double-barrelled Latin names.” One might add that a lack of popular works on the lines of Hugh Whistler’s and Salim Ali’s bird books was another impediment.
Such books appeared eventually in the 1930s and 1950s in the form of Evans’ and Wynter-Blyth’s guides to Indian butterflies respectively, and common names were coined. Other books followed. But it is only now that there has been a significant spurt of interest in the Indian butterflies. Surely, the explosive growth of digital photography has had an important role here.
Identification
The identification of species is at the core of butterfly watching, and identification is the dominant theme of Isaac Kehimkar’s book, which describes and illustrates 735 of the 1501 species found in India. The species accounts form the bulk of the book. They have been grouped into five families, and the pages relating to each family have been marked with a specific colour for easy reference. The information provided for each species includes the scientific name, wingspan, distribution, habitat, description and larval food plants. A photograph of the live butterfly has been provided for most species.
The descriptions are rife with acronyms and technical terms such as “tornal area” and “conjoined discal spots”. These are likely to be forbidding to one whose interest is only casual. A small distributional map for each species would have been in order.
Museum photographs showing the upper and under sides of most of the species and their different forms arranged side by side are provided at the end of each family section. In a number of species, particularly the Skippers or Family Hesperiidae, the museum specimens and the live insect in the field appear considerably different. In the former the wings are outspread, whereas in the latter their aspect appears to be invariably at an angle to the horizontal. This alters the general impression entirely. Mounted specimens were the mainstay of the butterfly collection era, which is thankfully behind us now. A key to the identification of some 100 species has also been provided.
The adjunct sections include chapters on the life cycle, variability, migration, behaviour and biogeography of butterflies. There is one chapter on the structure of the adult, which, along with the glossary, may be consulted for explanations of technical terms.
The chapters on butterfly watching and photographing, and gardening for butterflies deserve special mention. They provide practical advice for those wishing to observe and photograph butterflies.
This book represents a great amount of work. It will be of great use to the amateur naturalist and to the professional. The only serious criticism that could be levelled against it is that it describes only the adult forms. The treatment of the entirely different larval and pupal stages, and the eggs, is scanty and almost non-existent.
The large number of photographs will be appreciated by all users.
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