Wednesday 23 December 2015

Polyura eudamippus (Great nawab) - Sikkim Butterfly

Scientific classification

Kingdom:             Animalia
Phylum:               Arthropoda
Class:                    Insecta
Order:                  Lepidoptera
Family:                 Nymphalidae
Genus:                  Polyura
Species:                 P. eudamippus
Binomial name:    Polyura eudamippus (Doubleday, 1843)

Other Names:  great nawab


Special feature:   This species can be found in northeastern India (Sikkim, Assam), Bhutan, and Burma, also in China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indochina. (Wikipedia)

Polyura athama (Common Nawab) - Sikkim Butterfly




Scientific classification

Kingdom:             Animalia
Phylum:               Arthropoda
Class:                    Insecta
Order:                  Lepidoptera
Family:                 Nymphalidae
Genus:                  Polyura
Species:                 P. athamas
Binomial name:    Polyura athamas (Drury) 1773

Other Names:  common nawab


Special feature:  

Poritia hewitsoni (Common Gem - male) - Sikkim Butterfly





Scientific classification

Kingdom:             Animalia
Phylum:               Arthropoda
Class:                    Insecta
Order:                  Lepidoptera
Family:                 Lycaenidae
Genus:                  Poritia
Species:                 P. hewitsoni
Binomial name:    Poritia hewitsoni (Moore, 1865)

Other Names:  Common Gem


Special feature:  The members (species) of this genus are found in the Indomalaya ecozone extending from Afghanistan through the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia to lowland southern China, and through Indonesia as far as Java, Bali, and Borneo, east of which lies the Wallace line, the ecozone boundary named after Alfred Russel Wallace which separates Indomalaya from Australasia. Indomalaya also includes the Philippines, lowland Taiwan, and Japan's Ryukyu Islands. (Wikipedia)

Wednesday 23 September 2015

Orange oak-leaf (Kallima inachus) - Sikkim Butterfly




Scientific Classification

Kingdom:                     Animalia
Phylum:                        Arthropoda
Class:                            Insecta
Order:                           Lepidoptera
Family:                          Nymphalidae
Genus:                           Kallima
Species:                         K. inachus
Binomial name:            Kallima inachus (Doyère, 1840)

Other Names:  Orange oak-leaf or Dead leaf



Special feature:  With wings closed, it closely resembles a dry leaf with dark veins and is a spectacular and commonly cited example of camouflage.

Friday 11 September 2015

Erebus ephesperis - Sikkim Moth




Scientific Classification

Kingdom:            Animalia
Phylum:               Arthropoda
Class:                    Insecta
Order:                  Lepidoptera
Family:                 Erebidae
Subfamily:           Erebinae
Tribe:                   Erebini
Genus:                  Erebus
Species:                 E. ephesperis
Binomial name:    Erebus ephesperis (Hübner, 1827)

Other Names:


Special feature:  It has a wingspan of about 9 cm.

Wednesday 2 September 2015

Sikkim Ornithological Society starts awareness tour to Sikkim’s schools

Visits Kabi GSSS and Tingda PS
Sikkim Biodiversity news

02.09.15: Sikkim Ornithological Society starts an awareness of Sikkim’s nature by visiting schools of Sikkim. The organization is set to visit at-least 500 schools from primary level to Senior Secondary schools in the program. The team of SOS today made its first visit to Kabi School and Tingda PS.

 Nosang Muringla Limboo, President of SOS with his presentation of Butterfly chart
With Headmaster and Teacher of Tingda 


The Team met the students and teachers of the school and briefed about the volunteer work to present a chart of Birds and Butterflies of Sikkim (complied by the SOS team a decade's work) for each school throughout the state. Motive behind the program was to interact with the young minds of Sikkim and to make them aware of their own natural wealth and help conserve it.

Thursday 27 August 2015

Appias

Appias forms a part of a genus of family Pieridae (whites) found in Southern Asia and Australia. They are also commonly called puffins or albatrosses.

“Off the recorded Appias species, 10 species occurs in Indian Subcontinent i.e. albina, libythea, paulina, lyncida, nero, indra, melania, lalage, wardii and olferna. Apart from A.nero i.e bright orange coloured, all the Appias species found in India are white on the upper wing surface, with the apex and outer margins of the forewings marked to a greater or lesser extent with black, according to species. Females of the "white" species have a dull brownish-white ground colour, heavily suffused with dark brown around the margins and in the fw discal cell. The undersides vary considerably - e.g. albina is pure white; indra is greyish, heavily mottled with brown; and the underside hindwings of lyncida are bright yellow with broad chocolate margins”. (learnaboutbutterflies.com)

Tuesday 25 August 2015

Fulvous forest skimmer (Neurothemis fulvia) - Sikkim Dragonfly


China rose (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)- Sikkim Flora


Scientific classification

Kingdom:       Plantae
Family:           Malvaceae
Genus:            Hibiscus
Species:           H. rosa-sinensis

Binomial name: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L.

Other Names:  China rose

Special feature:  It is the most widely used flower in laboratory experiments by scholars and universities to study floral characteristics.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis was named by Carolus Linnaeus. The Latin term rosa-sinensis literally means "rose of China", though it is not closely related to the true roses.

Saturday 22 August 2015

Ixias pyrene (Yellow Orange Tip) - Sikkim Butterfly



Scientific classification

Kingdom:             Animalia
Phylum:               Arthropoda
Class:                    Insecta
Order:                  Lepidoptera
Family:                 Pieridae
Genus:                  Ixias
Species:                 I. pyrene
Binomial name:    Ixias pyrene (Linnaeus 1764)

Other Names:  Yellow Orange Tip


Special feature:  This species is most common among the genus Ixias. They are ten species in numbers. 

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Pseudocoladenia dan, (Fulvous Pied Flat) - Sikkim Butterfly

Pseudocoladenia dan, (Fulvous Pied Flat)

Place : Rongli, East Sikkim

Date: March 8, 2015

Pic: Shital Pradhan

Tuesday 24 March 2015

Papilio memnon (Great Mormon) - Sikkim Butterfly


Place: Rongli, East Sikkim (March 8, 2015) Pic: Shital Pradhan


Kingdom:            Animalia

Phylum:               Arthropoda

Class:                   Insecta

Order:                 Lepidoptera

Family:               Papilionidae

Genus:                 Papilio

Species:                P. memnon

Binomial name:  Papilio memnon Linnaeus (1758)


MORE ON GENUS PAPILIO

Monday 16 March 2015

Phoenicurus hodgsoni (Hodgson's redstart) - Sikkim Bird


Phoenicurus hodgsoni (Hodgson's redstart)
Place : Rongli, East Sikkim
Date: March 8, 2015
Pic: Shital Pradhan

Centropus sinensis (Greater Coucal) - Sikkim Bird

Centropus sinensis (Greater Coucal)

Place : Rongli, East Sikkim

Date: March 8, 2015

Pic: Shital Pradhan

Friday 30 January 2015

Pericrocotus speciosus (Scarlet minivet - male) - Sikkim Bird

Pericrocotus speciosus (Scarlet minivet - male)

Place : Shantinagar, Singtam, East Sikkim

Date: January 23, 2015
Pic: Shital Pradhan



Scientific classification

Kingdom:       Animalia
Phylum:          Chordata
Class:             Aves
Order:            Passeriformes
Family:           Campephagidae
Genus:            Pericrocotus
Species:           P. speciosus

Binomial name: Pericrocotus speciosus Latham, 1790

Other Names:  Scarlet Minivet

Special feature:  While the male of most subspecies are scarlet to orange with black upper parts, the females are usually yellow with greyish olive upper parts.

There are 13 species found in this genus:


    Rosy minivet,                                                          Pericrocotus roseus
    Swinhoe's minivet or brown-rumped minivet,        Pericrocotus cantonensis
    Ashy minivet,                                                          Pericrocotus divaricatus
    Ryukyu minivet,                                                     Pericrocotus tegimae
    Small minivet,                                                         Pericrocotus cinnamomeus
    Fiery minivet,                                                          Pericrocotus igneus
    Little minivet,                                                         Pericrocotus lansbergei
    White-bellied minivet,                                            Pericrocotus erythropygius
    Grey-chinned minivet,                                            Pericrocotus solaris
    Long-tailed minivet,                                               Pericrocotus ethologus
    Short-billed minivet,                                               Pericrocotus brevirostris
    Sunda minivet,                                                        Pericrocotus miniatus
    Scarlet minivet,                                                       Pericrocotus speciosus
    Orange minivet,                                                      Pericrocotus flammeus