Rare butterfly species sighted in Chhattisgarh forest

Bhopal:  A rare species of butterfly has been sighted in a reserve forest in Chhattisgarh. The spotted angle butterfly, with the scientific name Caprona agama, was spotted in the Bharamdeo reserve forest in Kawardha district by a survey team of the Chhattisgarh forest department.

Divisional forest officer (DFO) Dilraj Prabhakar said this was the first sighting of the species in central India.

“This species of butterfly is sighted rarely in India”, researcher Dr Rajendra Gupta said. Sightings have been reported in south India, Maharashtra, Uttaranchal, and Arunachal Pradesh.

“The species is migratory in nature. It may have migrated from the north-east to Chhattisgarh through south Bastar via Odisha”, Dr Shiela Dubey, who has done her PhD on butterfly species of central India, told this newspaper.

According to Prabhakar, as many as 90 species of butterfly have been recorded in the Bharamdeo reserve forest.

Of the total 1600 species of butterfly recorded in India, 149 species have been recorded in Chhattisgarh.