The Weeds the Butterflies Feed On: An Awkward Finding From Raimona

Article summary

Researchers in Assam documenting butterflies and their associated plants in Raimona National Park, in the Bodoland Territorial Region, have reported that invasive alien plants function as important nectar sources for the butterfly community there. The exercise recorded butterfly species along with their larval host plants and the nectar plants adults depend on, distinguishing between the two plant roles — a distinction central to the finding. Raimona, notified as a national park in 2021, lies in the Eastern Himalaya foothills and adjoins protected forest across the international boundary with Bhutan. The result creates a genuine management dilemma, since invasive alien species are recognised under Target 6 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework as a leading driver of biodiversity loss, and removal programmes are standard practice. Where an invasive has become a food resource, removal must be sequenced rather than simply accelerated.