Counting Butterflies

On a pleasant, sunny winter morning in Delhi this January, a motley crew of researchers and nature enthusiasts strolled through the Asola Butterfly Park, conducting a population count of a particular butterfly.

- Sohail Madan

A butterfly that was polka dotted, orange, white and black from the outside, bold orange and black on the inside and finished with a neat pearly trim – the red pierrot Talicada nyseus. Dr. Akash Gulalia of Delhi University was quick to spot the first one. Subsequently, our eyes began to focus earnestly and soon more of them were visible.

What we were looking for were not the usual red pierrots. These were special, because the black portion of the upper side had unusual orange streaks on them. Sort of an orange flight path directed towards the abdomen. For quite some time now, these aberrations or variations have been spotted in Delhi. In fact, the presence of red pierrots here is in itself an enigma.

The definitive list of butterflies of Delhi compiled by Larsen & Toubro in the 1980s does not mention the red pierrot. The butterfly first made its presence felt in the early years of the 21st century, probably owing to the caterpillar’s habit of burrowing inside the leaves of the Kalanchoe plant, which acts as its host. The theory goes that plants brought from outside Delhi came with the butterfly inside them. At first it failed to establish itself and disappeared, according to a study published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa by Rajib Singh Bais (2015).