Sikkim Biodiversity: Where nature smiles

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Ourapteryx picticaudata

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.