Butterflies (lepidoptera: papilionoidea) of La Honda Basin, Mesa de Los Santos, Santander, Colombia

Abstract

Colombia is a privileged country given the geographical position, the diversity of ecosystems and the great plant complexity, conditions that allow it to occupy the third place in diversity of diurnal butterflies. The objective of this work was to establish the composition of species of diurnal butterflies in four locations of the La Honda basin for which captures were made using entomological nets of 45 cm in diameter, in the project of Characterization of the wild Entomofauna of La Honda basin, located in the northeast of the Colombian Andes. Analysis of inventory quality and analysis of similarity between sampling sites were performed. A total of 226 specimens were collected belonging to 95 species of the family Hesperiidae, Papilionidae, Pieridae, Lycaenidae, Riodinidae and Nymphalidae, the last having greatest abundance (134) and richness of species (53). La Navarra was the site with greatest abundance (110) and richness of species (54). The analysis of inventory quality indicated a potential richness of 167.13 species, a proportion of observed species of 56.24% and a sampling effort of 99.82%. The comparison of inventories allowed establishing that butterfly communities are different for all sampling sites, although there is a slight similarity between La Navarra and La Purnia. Based on the analysis of the inventory quality, it is proposed to carry out new sampling for these and other locations, as well as at different times of the year.