The case of two Czech entomologists arrested in India took a further turn last week when a court in Darjeeling sentenced Emil Kučera to three years in prison, plus a 60,000-rupee (US$1,300) fine, under the country's Wildlife Act and Biological Diversity Act. His colleague, Petr Švácha of the Institute of Entomology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Cěské Budějovice, was fined 20,000 rupees.

The pair have been held in India since 22 June for collecting butterflies from a national park without a permit. Kučera has been given bail and plans to appeal; Švácha is staying in India to help Kučera's legal fight.

"This case points to the need for revision of India's conservation legislation," says Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan, a taxonomist with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bangalore. "There are no cases of any insect gone extinct due to collection. Threats to insects come from pesticides poured into our fields and habitat loss due to land-use changes."