India, Feb. 17 -- In the cool forest clearings of Arunachal Pradesh's Talle Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, love is anything but gentle. Male butterflies chase rivals in tight aerial spirals, females twirl and flutter in calculated response, and mating pairs circle each other in delicate "carousel" flights - sometimes locking together for nearly three hours.

A new peer-reviewed study by researchers from North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong, has, for the first time, documented in detail the courtship and mating behaviour of 14 butterfly species in the wild landscapes of the Eastern Himalaya. Conducted between 2021 and 2023, the research captures a rarely seen dimension of Northeast India's rich biodiversity: the hidden strategies of ...