FIELD WORK: Research in our lab includes very strong components of field and museum work. Our field trips have taken us to the following destinations (museum visits are listed below that):
2017: Beginning May 2017, we have started monthly butterfly population censuses in the Western Ghats of southern Karnataka. Participants: Ankana Sanyal and Nitin R.
2016 September to November: Butterfly surveys in the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary and the Pakke Tiger Reserve, Arunachal Pradesh. Participants: Tarun Karmakar, Sarika Baidya.
2015 December to 2016 January: Butterfly surveys in the Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Research, Karnataka. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte and Deepa Agashe.
2015 May to July, and October-November: Butterfly and cicada surveys in the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary and the Pakke Tiger Reserve, Arunachal Pradesh. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Vaishali Bhaumik, Kiran Marathe, Dipendra Nath Basu, Tarun Karmakar, Rishiddh Jhaveri, Hariprasath, Deepa Agashe, Kruttika Phalnikar.
2015 April and August: Butterfly, cicada and odonata surveys in the Andaman Islands. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Vaishali Bhaumik, Riddhi Deshmukh, Kiran Marathe, Dipendra Nath Basu, Deepa Agashe, Shantanu Joshi.
2015 March: Butterfly surveys in and around the Namdapha National Park, Arunachal Pradesh. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Hemant Ogale, Rohan Lovalekar, Milind Bhakare.
2015 March to May: Butterfly and cicada surveys in the Khasi Hills, Meghalaya. Participants: Vaishali Bhaumik, Tarun Karmakar, Vivek Sarkar, Girish Kumar, Rishiddh Jhaveri, Gayatri Narayanan.
2014 May to October: Cicada, odonate and butterfly surveys in the Khasi Hills, Meghalaya. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Vivek Sarkar, Tarun Karmakar, Sudhanya Hajong.
2014 January: Butterfly surveys in the Garo Hills, Meghalaya. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Gaurav Agavekar, Tarun Karmakar, Vivek Sarkar.
2013 November: Butterfly and dragonfly surveys in Shendurney WLS, Kerala. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte and Deepa Agashe.
2013 April to July: Butterfly, cicada and dragonfly surveys in Nagaland, NE India. Participants: Tarun Karmakar, Shantanu Joshi, Suman Attiwilli, Krushnamegh Kunte, Benjamin Price.
2013 April: Butterfly and dragonfly surveys in northern Kerala. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Jahnavi Joshi, Shantanu Joshi, Deepa Agashe.
2013 January to December: Buxa Tiger Reserve and Mahananda WLS, West Bengal. Participants: Tarun Karmakar, Vivek Sarkar and Gaurav Agavekar.
2012 December: Butterfly and dragonfly surveys in Shendurney WLS, Kerala. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Gaurav Agavekar, Deepa Agashe, Suman Attiwilli.
2012 July-September: Intensive butterfly surveys in Nagaland. Participants: Tarun Karmakar, Suman Attiwilli.
2012 April-June: Butterfly, odonate and cicada surveys in Sikkim, Gorumara NP, Chilapata, Garo Hills, Nagaland and Kerala. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Tarun Karmakar, Shantanu Joshi, Suman Attiwilli, Husain Miyajiwala, Benjamin Price, Elizabeth Louise Allan.
2011 May: Butterfly surveys in Sikkim as part of our long-term project, "Assessing current populations and conservation priorities for rare, endangered and legally protected butterflies in Sikkim Himalaya". Funded by an ATREE Small Grant for Research in NE India from Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Gaurav Agavekar, Harsha Kumar, Deepa Agashe, Ongden Lepcha.
2010 October: Butterfly surveys in Aralam and Chinnar WLSs in Kerala, and at Top Slip, Indira Gandhi NP, in Tamil Nadu. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Kalesh Sadasivan, Balakrishnan Valappil, Saji Kandoth, V. C. Balakrishnan, Barrett Klein.
2009 October to December: Butterfly surveys in Sikkim, South Garo Hills in Meghalaya, southern Mizoram, Honey Valley and Tadiandamol in Karnataka, and the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Deepa Agashe, Isaac Ralte, Ullasa Kodandaramaiah, E. Kunhikrishnan, Kalesh Sadasivan, P. Arun.
2009 May: Butterfly surveys at Brahmagiris in Karnataka, Mannavan Shola and Edamalayar-Thattekad WLS in Kerala. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Kalesh Sadasivan, Balakrishnan Valappil, K. Rafeek, Gaurav Agavekar, Deepa Agashe.
2008 March to May: Peppara WLS in Kerala, Brahmagiris and Kumta in Karnataka, Sikkim, Ngengpui WLS in Mizoram, South Garo Hills in Meghalaya, Mehao WLS in Arunachal Pradesh, Manas-Ultapani-Chakrashila-Ripu landscape and Nameri WLS in western Assam. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Kalesh Sadasivan, Ullasa Kodandaramaiah, Uthappa, Rohan Lovalekar, Deepa Agashe, Kushal Choudhury.
2007 May-June: Borivli NP in Maharashtra, Namdapha and Pakhui NPs in Arunachal Pradesh, Schendurney-Kallar-Ponmudi landscape in southern Kerala and Thattekad in central Kerala. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, K. Rafeek, Amol Patwardhan, Kalesh Sadasivan, E. Kunhikrishnan.
2004 May to July: Anamalais and Chinnar in Tamil Nadu, Hemalkasa in Maharashtra, Bastar in Chhattisgadh, Bhitarkanika in Orissa, Borivli NP in Maharashtra, Castle Rock and Anashi in Karnataka, Dangs in Gujarat, Kumbalgadh WLS in Rajasthan, Palamau NP in Jharkhand, and Schendurney-Kallar landscape in Kerala. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte, Deepa Agashe, C. Susanth, Kalesh Sadasivan, Satya Prakash, E. Kunhikrishnan.
2003 June-July: Sirena, Corcovado NP, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. Participants: Krushnamegh Kunte.
In addition, we monitor butterflies weekly on the NCBS-GKVK campus in Bengaluru, where our lab is situated.
MUSEUM WORK: We maintain our own research collections that have a broad representation of butterflies, cicadas and odonates from all over India. We use these specimens for our phylogenetic, population genetic, taxonomic, and other evolutionary and ecological research. More information on our research collections is given on the collections webpage.
In addition, we frequently visit other research museums with two main goals in mind: (a) taxonomic research, and (b) photograph specimens, along with their labels, of endemic, rare and legally protected Indian butterflies. The latter goal serves to compile unpublished information on Indian butterflies from specimen labels, which is otherwise inaccessible to us and to most other people. We then make this information freely available though various modules and species pages on the Butterflies of India website. Our major museum visits are listed below:
2016 December: research collections of the University of Tokyo, Researh Institute of Evolutionary Biology, and private collections of Prof. Tomoo Fujioka in Tokyo, Japan.
2015 November-December: British Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum, London, UK. Visitors: Krushnamegh Kunte and Dipendra Nath Basu.
2014 July: Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. Visitor: KrushnameghKunte.
2013 May: British Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum, London, UK. Visitors: Anupama Prakash and Shiyu Su.
2012 September to November: British Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum, London, UK. Visitors: Krushnamegh Kunte and Gaurav Agavekar.
2012 February and March: British Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum, London, UK. Visitor: Krushnamegh Kunte.
2011 December: McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida at Gainesville, USA. Visitor: Krushnamegh Kunte.
2009-2011: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. Visitor: Krushnamegh Kunte.
2008 November: McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida at Gainesville, USA. Visitor: Krushnamegh Kunte.
2007 June: British Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum, London, UK. Visitor: Krushnamegh Kunte.
2005 June: McGuire Centre for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida at Gainesville, USA. Visitor: Krushnamegh Kunte.