BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS (LEPIDOPTERA) OF INDIA

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Picture Courtesy: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2016086

Context: The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) published a first-of-its-kind illustrated guide called "An Illustrated Guide to the Lepidoptera of India: Taxonomic Procedures, Family Characters, diversity and Distribution."

Key Highlights

• The primary objective of this publication is to provide an easy-to-understand summary of the essential diagnostic characteristics of the moth and butterfly families and superfamilies that are present in the Indian subcontinent.
• The global diversity of Lepidoptera has been updated to 166,320 species, 143 families, and 43 superfamilies, with India having 13,124 species, 101 families, and 31 superfamilies.
• It is a useful resource for taxonomic identification as well as basic knowledge about the worldwide distribution patterns of Lepidoptera and basic concepts like collection methods and lab procedures.
• Readers are given a detailed picture of Lepidoptera's global variety, including up-to-date statistics on species counts, families, and superfamily groups.
• The authors rectified a taxonomic problem by introducing a new family, Heliocosmidae, to the Lepidoptera order.

Lepidoptera

• Lepidoptera is a diversified group of winged insects that includes two of nature's most appealing creatures: butterflies and moths.
• With over 180,000 documented species, Lepidoptera is one of the most abundant insect orders, accounting for around 10% of all known organisms.