2. • 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…
3. 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 …..
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උඩවැඩියා ග ොයම්
ගවලං
ග ෝ
4. 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
5. 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
6. • 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
7. • 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?
8. • 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?
9. We can Help You
Butterfly Conservation
Society of Sri Lanka
www.slbutterflies.com
A Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Sri
Lanka
