Welcome to the World of Flying Jewels by Pubudu Indika

• Butterflies are

• A type of insects -three pairs of jointed legs, three main body segments

• Order Lepidoptera - Characterized by having scaly wings and a proboscis

• Go through a complete metamorphism (egg, larva, pupa, adult)

• Superfamily Papilionoidea – (being different from moths)

• By having a club shaped antenna

Intro…

Larval food Plants

Larvae needs unique species of plants to eat

Distribution and abundance of butterflies mainly depend on LFPs

Up to now more than 450 plant species for 200 butterfly species in SL

A special Requirement …..

වරාඋඩවැඩියා ග ොයම්

ගවලං

ග ෝ

Sri Lankan habours245 species including 26 Endemics

Distributed in 5 Zones

Inhabiting in

Home gardens, parks, scrublands, forests

Rare species restricted to forests

Endemics are based in WZ and HC

Most of the species can be seen in IZ

Sri Lankan Butterflies

Wet

zone

Dry zone

Intermediate zone

Hill country

Northern region

You are here

As a hobby or in research purpose

• Basic requirements

• Desire and commitment

• Good guidance – workshops, field visits, discussions, publications

• Field note book and a pencil

Studying butterflies

• It would have been easy to catch twenty or thirty specimens at each sweep of the net – Mackwood,1913

• Nowadays such a spectacle is very rarely to be seen – Woodhouse,1950

• Although such centres as Kandy, Rathnapura, Wellawaya, Murunkan are still quite good for collecting butterflies, they are not nearly as good as they used to be – Woodhouse,1950

What remains us to write????

Status of Butterflies

• Simply because we love them………..

What for conserve butterflies?

• Top level indicator species

• Flagship taxon for invertebrates

• For education purposes and effectively widen the existing knowledge

• Revealing/ discovering new species

• Conservation of every population Is important for preserving genetic diversity

• Psycho spiritual satisfaction

Why conserve butterflies?

• As students we must,

• Educate on butterflies

• Study on butterflies in the field

• Conserve existing butterfly habitats

• Create new butterfly habitats (Butterfly gardening)

• Spread the message among friends

How we conserve butterflies?

We can Help You

Butterfly Conservation Society of Sri Lanka

www.slbutterflies.com

A Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Sri Lanka

Thank You !..