India Completes 1st Catalogue Of Butterflies, Moths, Documents 13,703 Species

India has completed its first comprehensive catalogue of butterflies and moths after more than 12 years of work, documenting 13,703 species and bridging taxonomic gaps that had persisted for over a century, the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) said.The catalogue, prepared by the ZSI under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, has been compiled across 22 volumes and provides an updated taxonomic inventory of Indian Lepidoptera -- the insect order comprising butterflies and moths, the ZSI said in a press release.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.According to the survey, India is home to 13,703 species of butterflies and moths belonging to 3,705 genera, 240 subfamilies, 102 families and 31 superfamilies, accounting for around 8.25 per cent of the world's known Lepidoptera diversity.The concluding volume catalogues the remaining 1,689…