International Journal of Research ISSN NO:2236-6124 A Study on the Congregation of Adult Butterflies on Non-floral Resources at Different Locations in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India Panchali Sengupta1*, Narayan Ghorai2 1Department of Zoology, West Bengal State University, Berunanpukaria, Malikapur, Barasat, District-24 Parganas (North), Kolkata-700126.West Bengal, India Email id:
[email protected] 2Department of Zoology, West Bengal State University, Berunanpukaria, Malikapur, Barasat, District-24 Parganas (North), Kolkata-700126.West Bengal, India email id:
[email protected] Abstract Several instances of puddling, as reported among different herbivore arthropods, appears quite interesting. Significantly, congregation of adult butterflies at several non-floral resources (wet soil/mud, animal dung, bird droppings, carrion, rotten/fermenting fruits) were examined at different locations in Jalpaiguri district adjacent to the tea estates, villages and agricultural tracts. Different species of papilionids and pierids congregate on wet soil patch and puddle collectively. However other species of nymphalid, lycaenid and hesperid are found to puddle individually, without associating with others on resources like excrements and carrion. Irrespective of any species newly emerged males, and aged females are found to puddle. Interestingly, each species belonging to a particular family have a specific range of puddling duration. Such specificity in puddling among species of a family could probably be associated with their need for a common nutrient. Keywords:, congregation, hesperid, lycaenid, nymphalid, papilionid, pierid *corresponding author Volume VIII, Issue VI, JUNE/2019 Page No:5877 International Journal of Research ISSN NO:2236-6124 Introduction Puddling is a widely recognised fascinating event in the life history of any herbivore arthropods except beetles targeted towards accumulation of specific micronutrient (Mollemann, 2010).