The study on the Lepidoptera fauna of Manipur is almost negligible. There is no confirming number of butterflies reported from Manipur so far. The pioneering works on butterfly study from Manipur date to Butler (1885) based on the collection of butterflies from the Manipur and on the Borders of Assam by Dr. George Watt. Butler (1879); Wood-Mason & de Niceville (1886) have also mentioned records of butterflies from the Cachar district of Assam which is neighbor to Manipur and Tytler (1911-1912, 1914-1915) have also collected 291 species of butterflies from Manipur which mainly focused on the butterfly fauna of the Naga Hills, Sebong and Imphal valley. Some of the records on the butterfly fauna of Manipur have been reflected in the “Fauna of British India” series of butterflies (Bingham, 1905, 1907; Talbot, 1939, 1947); “Identifications of Indian Butterflies” series by Evans (1923, 1932) and “Butterflies of Indian Region” by Wynter-Blyth (1957).
In recent years few studies have been conducted and lead to discovery and rediscovery many important butterflies from the territory of Manipur. Thus, it is necessary now to launch a statewide survey on these least studied group of insects. less ↑