Creating detailed species pages is a critical aspect of the development of the Amphibians of India website. If you would like to volunteer to create a species page, please email us before you start writing the text to see if anyone else is working on it, and to get specific guidance for that species. For most species pages we do not expect detailed information, although we prefer species pages to be as detailed and complete as possible. To see an example of a complete species page, visit, Nasikabatrachus sahayadrensis, Purple Frog. .

 

If you are contributing a species page for the first time, please check the template given below before you start writing the text. You can also download this template as a Word file. Once you have written all the text, you can submit it by email. After submission, your species page will not appear online immediately. It has to be first peer-reviewed and accepted by the Amphibian Biology Team members, who will then publish it online. You can make changes to your species page after it has been published online, although we recommend that you write the page just once, and do it well so that you will not need to make changes. This will also substantially reduce our work load. We are all volunteering, after all!

If you wish to add or edit information on species pages that were created by someone else, please contact us first.

You can submit media files (mainly photographs and videos) to accompany species pages. First read guidelines to submit media files.

Scientific Name: Species scientific name Author, Year

English Name: Species English name

Subspecies in India: list all described Indian subspecies as follows:
(1) Subspecies scientific name Author, Year (Subspecies English name).
(... n) Subspecies scientific name Author, Year (Subspecies English name).

Identification Character(s): Key morphological characters: (from various field guides and recent publications for revised keys). Additional identification characters, if any (snout-vent length, webbing, distribution, peculiar habits, etc).

Intraspecific Variation: Description of seasonal, sexual and individual variation.

Similar Species in India: List similar species and their distinguishing characters.

Distribution: Detailed Indian and rough global distribution of the species.

Detailed distribution of subspecies 1

Detailed distribution of subspecies 2

Status, Habitat and Habits: Status as very common, common, uncommon, rare and very rare. Altitudinal range. Habitat range. Habits: active, basking, feeding, territoriality, sex-specific differences in the habits, etc.

Life Cycle: Courtship, oviposition. Description of eggs and tadpoles. Habits of the early stages.

References: When extracting information from other sources, refer to as many books, research papers and websites as you can, but ensure that your references are reliable. Beware that many websites and some books often give outdated or otherwise wrong information. Try to refer either original or comprehensive sources of information on Indian butterflies, since many books and websites merely copy information from previously published sources. Cite all the references from which you have extracted information, in the following style:

Books:

(1) Wynter-Blyth, M. A. 1957. Butterflies of the Indian Region. Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai.
(2) Bascombe, M. J., G. Johnston and F. S. Bascombe. 1999. The Butterflies of Hong Kong. Academic Press, London.

Papers:

(1) de Nicéville, L. 1883. On new and little-known Rhopalocera from the Indian region. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal: Part 2-Natural Science, 52: 65-91.
(2) Aduse-Poku, K., E. Vingerhoedt and N. Wahlberg. 2009. Out-of-Africa again: A phylogenetic hypothesis of the genus Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based on five gene regions. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 53: 463-478.

Edited books:

(1) Gunathilagaraj, K., B. A. Daniel, S. Molur and S. Walker (eds.). 2000. Handbook on Protected Invertebrates of India. Part 1- Butterflies Listed in Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Schedule I Part IV. Zoo Outreach Organisation, Coimbatore.

Book chapters:

(1) Holloway, J. D. 1974. The biogeography of Indian butterflies. Pp. 473-499, in M. S. Mani (ed.) Ecology and Biogeography in India. Junk, The Hague.

Websites:

(1) Inayoshi, Y. 2009. A Check List of Butterflies in Indo-China (chiefly from Thailand, Laos and Vietnam). URL: http://yutaka.it-n.jp/ (accessed 2010).

Cite this page along with its URL, as: (This is the suggested citation of your species page. Arrange it as follows)

Your last name, initials. Year of publication. Scientific name of the species Author, Year - English name. In, K. Kunte, U. Kodandaramaiah & K. Sadasivan (eds.). Butterflies of India. v.1.0. Indian Foundation for Butterflies.

For example,

Kunte, K. 2010. Vanessa indica Herbst, 1794 - Indian Red Admiral. In, K. Kunte, U. Kodandaramaiah & K. Sadasivan (eds.). Butterflies of India. v.1.0. Indian Foundation for Butterflies.

 To see an example of a complete species page, visit Vanessa indica, the Indian Red Admiral.