Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2018 | 10(2): 11359–11360

Addition to the Documentation of into diferent sectons such as Book Review Fauna of Himalaya - introducton, species descriptons, A Book review of “ of buterfy hotspots of Utarakhand, Uttarakhand” bibliography, glossary and checklist. ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) The species descripton, which ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) K.A. Subramanian forms the core of the book, is organized under diferent families OPEN ACCESS Southern Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, and subfamilies. Each species 130, Santhome High Road, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600028, India is briefy described with feld or [email protected] museum specimen photos with informaton on habits, range and status. Species Buterfies (Insecta: Lepidoptera) are fagship species protected under the Wildlife Act (Protecton), 1972 of conservaton. They are sensitve to ecosystem are also indicated wherever applicable. The book is a and landscape changes. Globally, they have been used valuable additon to the documentaton of biodiversity across contnents and biomes to monitor ecosystem of western Himalaya. health. Their strong associaton with host plants, This afordably priced book is aimed at students, habitat specifcity and relatve easiness in accurate amateur naturalists, tourists and conservaton managers feld identfcaton and quanttatve sampling makes to promote research and ecotourism on buterfies of them an ideal taxa for biomonitoring studies. The Utarakhand. Informaton on larval host plants, adult Indian subcontnent is a global hotspot for buterfies with nearly 1,500 known species. The subcontnent has a rich history of scientfc studies on buterfies Buterfies of Utarakhand - A Field Guide startng from the colonial period and buterfies are -- Sanjay Sondhi & Krushnamegh Kunte one the best studied insect taxa in the subcontnent. Date of publicaton: 2018 The frst illustrated feld guide on Indian buterfies was Published: M/s Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh (Dehradun), by Wynter-Blyth (1957). With the advent of modern Titli Trust (Dehradun), Natonal Centre for Biological Sciences printng and digital technology several feld guides on (Bengaluru) & Indian Foundaton for Buterfies (Bengaluru). Pages: x+310pp buterfies for diferent parts of India are now available. This wide availability feld guides and good online resources such as www.ifoundbuterfies.org, htp:// yutaka.it-n.jp/ and Global Lepidoptera Name Index have promoted several scientfc investgatons on , ecology, behaviour, evoluton, genetcs and phylogeny of Indian buterfies in the recent tmes. The “Buterfies of Utarakhand - A Field Guide” (2018) by Sanjay Sondhi and Krushnamegh Kunte is the third in the series on Himalayan buterfies by the authors, the other two being “Buterfies of Garo Hills” (2013) and “Buterfies and Moths of Pakke Tiger Reserve” (2014). This third book forms an important recent publicaton on Indian Himalayan buterfies. The authors are well known lepidopterists and have been conductng extensive studies on buterfies of India. The recent book on buterfies of Utarakhand is a comprehensive account of 500 species of buterfies recorded from the Himalayan state. The book is well designed and lavishly illustrated with good quality colour photographs or museum specimens of all known species of buterfies of Utarakhand. The book is organized DOI: htp://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4092.10.2.11359-11360 Date of publicaton: 26 February 2018 (online & print)

11359 Book review food plants, fight season and conservaton issues, enclosing the year of publicaton is not as per the code. however, are conspicuously absent from the book. This As per ICZN (Artcle 51.3), the species names should have informaton would have defnitely increased the value been cited as risa (Doubleday, 1848) and of this important publicaton and initated addressing Cyrests thodamas Dyère, 1840. Similarly, the subspecies buterfy conservaton issues in the state, especially is writen as, Argynnis clara clara Blanchard, 1844 and among the academia and biodiversity managers. not as mentoned above. Glaring copy editng errors in Though authors have taken care to organize species common English names such as “Double-banded Blue descriptons under diferent families and subfamilies, Crow” instead of “Double-branded Blue Crow” could in species descriptons and checklist, the authorship or have been avoided. I am sure these inadvertent copy year of publicaton in species names are not cited as editng errors will be taken care in future editons. With per the Internatonal Code of Zoological Nomenclature all above minor shortalls, the book is a much need (ICZN). To illustrate, in Chersonesia risa (Doubleday, additon to the documentaton of Himalayan fauna [1848]), Cyrests thodamas Dyère, [1840] and Argynnis and must for a serious naturalist, nature guides and clara Blanchard, [1844] ssp. clara the year of publicaton conservaton managers. is enclosed in square brackets. Use of square brackets

Threatened Taxa

11360 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2018 | 10(2): 11359–11360