India has completed its first comprehensive catalogue of butterflies and moths, documenting 13,703 species after more than 12 years of scientific research, the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) announced. The catalogue, prepared under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, provides an updated taxonomic inventory of Indian Lepidoptera, the insect order that includes butterflies and moths.

The landmark project has been compiled across 22 volumes and aims to address taxonomic gaps that remained unresolved for more than a century. The final volume of the series, authored by ZSI taxonomists Dr Rahul Joshi and Dr Navneet Singh, has been published in the international journal Zootaxa. The concluding publication completes what the ZSI described as India’s first centralised and authoritative reference database for Lepidoptera species.

According to the catalogue, India is home to 13,703 butterfly and moth species belonging to 3,705 genera, 240 subfamilies, 102 families and 31 superfamilies. These species represent around 8.25 per cent of the world’s known Lepidoptera diversity. The final volume documents the remaining 1,689 species, completing the nationwide inventory of the insect group.

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A major focus of the project was the documentation of the moth superfamily Geometroidea, which includes 2,205 species across 479 genera, 13 subfamilies and four families in India. The ZSI noted that Geometroidea species found in India account for nearly 8.8 per cent of the world’s known diversity within this superfamily. Among these, the Geometridae family recorded the highest diversity with 2,100 species, followed by Uraniidae with 95 species, Epicopeiidae with nine species and Pseudobistonidae with one species.

The catalogue was developed through extensive field surveys, examination of museum collections and detailed verification of scientific literature carried out over more than a decade. ZSI Director Dr Dhriti Banerjee said the completed volumes would serve as an important national resource for biodiversity research, ecological monitoring and conservation planning by providing scientific recognition and documentation of India’s insect diversity.

Butterflies and moths play a significant role in ecosystems as pollinators, herbivores and decomposers while also serving as an important food source for birds, bats and other insect-eating species. The ZSI said the consolidated inventory will help researchers, conservationists and policymakers establish a scientific baseline for biodiversity studies, monitor ecological changes and assess the impact of climate change across India’s varied ecosystems.

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