First butterfly to be discovered and described by an all Indian research team from the Western Ghats.

A new taxon of Lycaenid butterfly belonging to the Nacaduba genus has been discovered by researchers from the Western Ghats. This adds a new species to the butterfly fauna of India as well as that of the Western Ghats and Kerala state as well. The common name of the butterfly is suggested as Ramaswami’s Six Lineblue and ‘Ceylon Varayanneeli’. The discovery was done by a team of four researchers, namely, Dr. Kalesh Sadasivan and Baiju. K from Travancore Nature History Society (TNHS) Trivandrum, Rahul Khot from Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay and Ramasamy Naicker from Vanam, Theni. 

         Line blues are small butterflies belonging to the subfamily Lycaenidae with Indo-Australian. Their distribution ranges from India and Sri Lanka to the whole of south-eastern Asia, Australia, and Samoa. They are characterised by hairy eyes, anastomosis of veins 11 and 12 on forewings, male wings

Exotic butterflies come calling - Article on The Hindu newspaper about Baiju K's & Kalesh S's work on Trivandrum Zoo Butterfly park (June 20, 2014)

The Red Pierrot warmed up quickly to its new ‘hosts.’ This striking little butterfly fluttered around the new plants in the Thiruvananthapuram Zoo, brought here only a couple of hours ago on Monday morning. R. Baiju watched, almost endearingly, as the unusual butterfly species finally adopted a leaf as its home, or egg-laying spot, even before the plants were taken out of their bags and planted into the soil.

He is a Hindi teacher of a government upper primary school in Palode but he was on leave on Monday to engage in a serious hobby of his. Mr. Baiju is one of the more active members of the Travancore Natural History Society (TNHS), the group that is supporting the city zoo in its endeavour to transform the neglected ‘Butterfly Park’ on its premises.