Thiruvananthapuram: The Banded Royal Rachana Jalindra Horsfield, a very rare butterfly belonging to the blue family, was recorded at Arippa Ammayambalam Pacha forests bordering Thiruvananthapuram-Kollam districts during a bird, butterfly and dragonfly trail conducted by the city-based nature lovers forum, Warblers and Waders, with the support of Kerala forest and wildlife department.
The trail was carried out in connection with the nature watching camp as part of the silver jubilee of the forum held on December 26 and 27.
The colour of Banded Royal is white in the upper part of the wing with a broad dark brown discal band on the forewing. The male bird would have shining violet blue, C. Sushanth, programme coordinator, Warblers and Waders, told Deccan Chronicle.
Banded Royal is considered as a rare to very rare butterflies of Kerala with very few sightings in Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary (Kannur), Vazhchal-Athirapilly reserve forests (Thrissur) and Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary (Kollam). Warblers and Waders had recorded this butterfly during 2005 at Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary, Mr Sushanth said.
The sighting of this butterfly at Arippa forests is after a ten-year interval. It lives in the thickest forests below 5,000 feet and settles on the undersides of leaves and flowers.
Banded Royal is not very active on the wing and rests under leaves and rarely comes to flowers or damp patches. The butterfly seen at Arippa was sighted near the forest trek path resting on a leaf with open wings in sunlight, he said.
As many as 80 bird species, including the brown fish owl, grey-headed bulbul, black eagle, sparrow hawk and great eared-nightjar were observed on the bird trail. It also recorded 65 species of butterflies including aberrant oak blue, Malabar Rose, Travancore evening brown, Malabar banded swallowtail, Indian ace,
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