Inadvertent implications of climate change for butterflies

Abstract

Climate change is one of the leading challenges of this century with an impending threat to wipe out more vital butterfly species than ever before. Climate shift has the potential to affect their life cycles, flight times, essential bio-interactions, and ultimately survival. As the first such study in India, this case study highlights the inferential discussion on the importance of butterflies in maintaining the earth’s fragile ecological balance and consequently the impact of climate change upon them with inadvertent implications. Due to the shifting climate, a number of butterfly species are now migrating to newer places in their search for comfortable temperature and availability of food, as the reduction/loss/change of habitat lowers the diversity of microclimates and availability of food plants for larvae and adult butterflies. Consequently, the butterflies become even more vulnerable to natural perturbations and susceptible to predators and local extinctions.