Butterflies are one of the most fascinating groups of insects and have always been a center of attraction to humankind.
Butterflies act as or are used as indicator species to identify the habitats that are critical and need to be protected and also indicate variation in local climate and environmental degradation; therefore butterflies are an important ecological indicator that can be channelized for various conservation purposes. Venkataramani (1986) Describes India as a "butterfly paradise" land.
Delhi, being a national capital faces huge anthropogenic pressure for decades. Ecologically Delhi is nestled between two different types of topology, one is rugged Aravalli hill range and its typical scrub forest, another is the Yamuna River and its fertile alluvial flood plains. This type of topology makes many micro habitat zones in between these two large ecological landscapes.
Delhi being a gardened island of greenery in a very extensive semi-desert region on one part of Delhi to the semi-flowing River.
The Yamuna on the other side permits an easy and discrete study of sub localities.
Butterflies serve as important plant pollinators in the local environment, and help to pollinate more than 50 economically important plant crops (Borges et al. 2003) [8]
Delhi with its arid climatic conditions has never been a collector’s paradise in term of butterfly diversity as compared to Himalayan regions, the Western Ghats or North-East India. Although few studies have been done till date in Delhi on butterflies, the very paucity of species made it possible for part-time collector confined to Delhi to study and collect a range that would be difficult in richer areas (Ashton, 1967) [4] . The various habitat matrix nestled between the alluvial Yamuna flood plain and semi-arid Aravalli hills make many micro habitat zones in between these two large ecological landscapes.
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| Common Jay |
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| Common Mime |
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| Lemon Pansy |
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| Striped Tiger |
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