SPECIES OF THE MONTH: SEPTEMBER 2014

                                                           
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum  : Arthropoda
Class      : Insecta
Order     : Lepidoptera
Family   : Papilionidae
Genus    : Teinopalpus
Species  : Teinopalpus imperialis

The 'Emperor of India' has been caught in camera for the first time. Dont go for Wikipedia, it is just a butterfly, the common name of which so. With a scientic name Teinopalpus imperialis, "Emperor of India", which can be translated as 'Kaiser-i-Hind' was photographed live for the first time in India by Dr Kano during a Butterfly Meet organized by NgunuZiro at Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh.

However, the credit for the photo added here goes to Reddy Bei, Range Forest Officer, Pange, Talle Wildlife Sanctuary. A report in the Arunachal Times on 25 August 2014 stated that the Kaiser-i-Hind been photographed for the first time in Arunachal Pradesh. But Reddy Bei said that he had photographed the same butterfly from Talle in 2012.

The Kaiser-i-hind would be a keystone species for conservation of high-altitude forest.The Kaiser-i-hind is a high altitude forest species which occurs at medium and higher elevations in the Himalayas from 6,000 to 10,000 feet (1,800 to 3,000 m) in well-wooded terrain. In the northeast of India, much of its forest habitat is degraded by jhoom cultivation; the butterfly is rarely found in the degraded patches.

The iridescent green scaling on the wings of the Kaiser-i-hind are the subject of much research.The three-dimensional photonic structure has been examined by transmission electron tomography and computer modelling to reveal naturally occurring "chiral tetrahedral repeating units packed in a triclinic lattice" (Argyros etal 2001), the cause of the iridescence.

The Kaiser-i-hind is protected by Indian and Nepalese law. The two species of Kaiser-i-hind were listed in CITES Appendix II from 1987 onwards.However, conservation of Kaiser-i-hind in the India is complicated by the fact that most of the responsibility for conservation action runs at the state government level and not at the national level.

Source: http://www.sanctuaryasia.com
Link    : http://www.sciencedirect.com