A Glimpse into Moths from India’s Most Biodiverse Regions - Western Ghats
Brief photographic stories on moth diversity across three of India’s richest ecosystems: Meghalaya, the Western Ghats and the Andaman Islands. All the moths were documented in and around different homestays/homes without using any active methods to attract them.
Moths are in the order Lepidoptera (the same as butterflies), though for every species of butterfly, there are approximately ten more species of moths, meaning the variation among moths is enormous. Globally, around 160,000 moth species have been described, including over 12,000 moth species recorded from the Indian subcontinent. They can often be distinguished from butterflies by their antennae and other morphological characteristics. Most moths are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night, though some are active during the day as well. Despite their diversity, moths often go unnoticed, even though they play an important role as bioindicators of environmental health. This is our small attempt to help you appreciate these captivating insects.
YEVAKAPADI VILLAGE -1067 m
Driving through the Kodagu district, I spot a troop of bonnet macaques eating biscuits and bananas, presumably thrown at them by passing tourist vehicles. With their parted hair, the macaques look rather distinguished, and faintly insulted by the snacks being thrown at them. Appalling manners and terrible taste, they seem to say. The soft violence of tourism in paradise needs to be studied.
The last time I was in Kodagu, it was in the winter of 2019. Since then, we have seen a pandemic and two El Niño events (2023 and the current one in 2026). I am told that the Western Ghats are facing a severe rainfall deficit. The wider Malnad region recorded a substantial shortfall during the 2026 southwest monsoon, though I haven’t been able to verify the exact deficit for Kodagu district. Much has changed, I tell myself. I can feel it in the air. My lungs will tell you that too, although lately they have been less a respiratory organ and more a grievance redressal department.
"I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen, han mathon ned cae, a han noston ned gwilith," Galadriel says in The Lord of the Rings, meaning "The world is changed, I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air.” Though, in fairness to Galadriel, Middle-earth at least had the decency to make environmental collapse sound poetic.
Yevakapadi village lies at the foothills of Thadiandamol Peak in the Western Ghats. Coffee and pepper plantations give way to Shola forests, which in turn give way to montane grasslands closer to the summit. In a 2016 study of moth diversity in Kodagu, Mishra et al. documented 102 genera across 17 families, comprising 117 species. Erebidae was the most well-represented family, accounting for 32.48% of the recorded species. The study established that the top three families: Erebidae, Geometridae, and Crambidae collectively accounted for 73% of the district’s moth diversity. These findings are discussed in a subsequent study by Nijagal et al. (2025), which examined the moth fauna in and around Heravanadu village in the same district.
But I wasn’t here to study moths or make a list. I was here to wander and see what the natural world might reveal. The moths I encountered belonged to a particular time and place: an El Niño year, at that particular altitude, amid the growing climate collapse of the Anthropocene. With nothing to prove, nowhere in particular to go, I followed the world as it unfolded, one “what the hell am I looking at?” at a time.
What follows is a collection of these chance encounters, more often than not in the company of leeches, for you to see what I saw.
Maliattha separata - Family:Noctuidae Yellow Peach Moth (Conogethes punctiferalis) - Family: Crambidae Actinotia sp. - Family: Noctuidae Eressa sp. - Family: Erebidae Marbled White Moth (Nyctemera coleta) - Family: Erebidae Family: Erebidae Jackfruit leaf roller (Glyphodes actorionalis) - Family Crambidae Lymantria todara - Family: Erebidae Miltochrista sp. - Family: Erebidae Family: Crambidae Diplurodes sp. - Family: Geometridae Amyna sp. - Family: Noctuidae Pstciana seminivea - Family: Nolidae Handmaiden (Amata sp.) - Family: Erebidae Schistophleps sp. - Family: Erebidae Family: Erebidae Chrioloba sp. - Family: Geometridae Pearl Grey Moth (Poliobotys ablactalis) - Family Crambidae Appleleaf-curling moth (Adoxophyes privatana) - Family: Tortricidae
Click an image to see each moth's tentative ID.
About the author
Sarah is a silly goose who waddles through life with a microscope in one hand and a paperback in another. She loves exploration, science, maps and swears by Lord of the Rings. Sarah is a silly goose who waddles through life with a microscope in one hand and a paperback in another. She loves exploration, science, maps and swears by Lord of the Rings.
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