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The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) is a regulatory framework adopted since 1994 in India to evaluate the impact and mitigation measures of projects, however, even after 25 years of adoption, EIAs continue to be of inferior quality with respect to biodiversity documentation and assessment of impacts and their mitigation measures. This questions the credibility of the exercise, as deficient EIAs are habitually used as a basis for project clearances in ecologically sensitive and irreplaceable regions. The authors reiterate this point by analysing impact assessment documents for three projects: the doubling of the National Highway-4A, doubling of the railway-line from Castlerock to Kulem, and laying of a 400-kV transmission line through the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park in the state of Goa. Two of these projects were recently granted ‘Wildlife Clearance’ during a virtual meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) without a thorough assessment of the project impacts. Assessment reports for the road and railway expansion were found to be deficient on multiple fronts regarding biodiversity assessment and projected impacts, whereas no impact assessment report was available in the public domain for the 400-kV transmission line project. This paper highlights the biodiversity significance of this protected area complex in the Western Ghats, and highlights the lacunae in biodiversity documentation and inadequacy of mitigation measures in assessment documents for all three diversion projects. The EIA process needs to improve substantially if India is to protect its natural resources and adhere to environmental protection policies and regulations nationally and globally.

Phenotypic plasticity in heterogeneous environments can provide tight environment-phenotype matching. However, the prerequisite is a reliable environmental cue(s) that enables organisms to use current environmental information to induce the development of a phenotype with high fitness in a forthcoming environment. Here, we quantify predictability in the timing of precipitation and temperature change to examine how this is associated with seasonal polyphenism in tropical Mycalesina butterflies. Seasonal precipitation in the tropics typically results in distinct selective environments, the wet and dry seasons, and changes in temperature can be a major environmental cue. We sampled communities of Mycalesina butterflies from two seasonal locations and one aseasonal location. Quantifying environmental predictability using wavelet analysis and Colwell's indices confirmed a strong periodicity of precipitation over a 12-month period at both seasonal locations compared to the aseasonal one. However, temperature seasonality and periodicity differed between the two seasonal locations. We further show that: (a) most females from both seasonal locations synchronize their reproduction with the seasons by breeding in the wet season but arresting reproduction in the dry season. In contrast, all species breed throughout the year in the aseasonal location and (b) species from the seasonal locations, but not those from the aseasonal location, exhibited polyphenism in wing pattern traits (eyespot size). We conclude that seasonal precipitation and its predictability are primary factors shaping the evolution of polyphenism in Mycalesina butterflies, and populations or species secondarily evolve local adaptations for cue use that depend on the local variation in the environment.

In warm climates, lizards may be important as predators of butterflies and thus exert selection pressure on butterfly colour patterns, including eyespots. However, this has received little attention. Two studies reported no evidence that butterfly eyespots deflect lizard attacks, while possible intimidating effects of butterfly eyespots on lizards have not been investigated. We exposed common evening brown butterflies (Melanitis leda) with a wide range of eyespot sizes (dry season forms with very small and faint eyespots, intermediate phenotypes with small eyespots, and wet season forms with large or very large eyespots) to house geckos, and recorded the location and shape of wing surface loss. We supplemented these data with direct observations of attacks of house geckos (Hemidactylus frenatus) and bronze skinks (Eutropis macularia) on common evening brown butterflies. We found that about three quarters of symmetrical wing surface loss, and about half of the non-symmetrical wing surface loss was rounded like the mouth of a gecko. Symmetrical as well as non-symmetrical wing surface loss was significantly more common in hindwings. We surmise that rounded wing surface loss and a bias in symmetrical wing surface loss to hindwings can be taken as evidence for failed lizard attacks. Rounded wing surface loss was more common in butterflies with small eyespots than in those with very small eyespots or with large eyespots. This suggests that small eyespots can deflect lizard attacks away from the head towards the wing margins, and that large eyespots can thwart lizard attacks. In four cases, skinks appeared to explore rather than attack butterfly eyespots. In contrast to earlier studies, our data provide evidence that butterfly eyespots can be an effective defence against lizards, and thus that predation by lizards can select for eyespots in butterflies.

A characteristic new species Meotipa sahyadri n. sp. with tall and white translucent abdomen in females is described in detail based on morphology of both sexes, based on specimens collected from the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa. The new species has epigynal projection which is known only in Meotipa picturata Simon, 1895, but differs in shape (trifid vs. quadrangular respectively). Males have longest straight embolus exceeding conductor length. Observations of its natural history are provided. Meotipa picturata is newly recorded from Goa, which extends its north-westward distribution from the previously known records from ‘Kodei Kanal’, India (type locality), Ratchasima Province, Thailand and East Kalimantan, Indonesia. A new combination Meotipa andamanensis (Tikader, 1977) n. comb. (= Argyrodes andamanensis ) is proposed based on the comparison of description and illustrations provided in the original paper to that of the characters of the type species M.picturata . 242 morphological characters studied in the previous literature and one additional character ‘epigynal projection’ were scored for Meotipa sahyadri n. sp. and Meotipa picturata. These species were obtained monophyletic, placed within Theridiinae as sister to Chrysso cf. nigriceps using parsimony analysis and Bayesian inference .