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.