Butterfly Diversity from Farmlands of Central Uganda

M B Théodore Munyuli

doi:10.1155/2012/481509

Abstract

The aim of this study was to collect information about the diversity of butterfly communities in the mixed coffee-banana mosaic (seminatural, agricultural) landscapes of rural central Uganda. Data were collected for one year (2006) using fruit-bait traps, line transect walk-and-counts, and hand nets. A total of 56,315 individuals belonging to 331 species, 95 genera, and 6 families were sampled. The most abundant species wasBicyclus safitza(14.5%) followed byAcraea acerata(6.3%),Catopsilia florella(6.5%) andJunonia sophia(6.1%). Significant differences in abundance, species richness, and diversity of butterflies occurred between the 26 study sites. Farmland butterflies visited a variety of habitats within and around sites, but important habitats included woodlands, fallows, hedgerows, swampy habitats, abandoned gardens, and home gardens. The highest diversity and abundance of butterflies occurred in sites that contained forest remnants. Thus, forest reserves in the surrounding of fields increased the conservation values of coffee-banana agroforestry systems for butterflies. Their protection from degradation should be a priority for policy makers since they support a species-rich community of butterflies pollinating cultivated plants. Farmers are encouraged to protect and increase on-farm areas covered by complex traditional agroforests, linear, and nonlinear seminatural habitats to provide sufficient breeding sites and nectar resources for butterflies.

Highlights

Butterflies are considered as good ecological indicators for other invertebrate taxa [1,2,3] and as surrogate representatives of environmental quality changes
Butterflies play significant ecological roles in agricultural landscapes. They perform essential ecosystem services [4], especially in the recycling of nutrients (N, P, K) highly needed by crops that were previously taken through plant absorption and uptake. Their larval stages feed on leaves of several wild plants found in the agricultural systems and release their faeces that contain some amount of nutrients [5]
Ubiquity, and importance with regard to their ecology, behavior, and functional role, butterflies remain relatively little studied in farmland habitats [5] in the tropics

Summary

Introduction

Butterflies are considered as good ecological indicators for other invertebrate taxa [1,2,3] and as surrogate representatives of environmental quality changes. Butterflies play significant ecological roles in agricultural landscapes They perform essential ecosystem services [4], especially in the recycling of nutrients (N, P, K) highly needed by crops that were previously taken through plant absorption and uptake. Their larval stages feed on leaves of several wild plants found in the agricultural systems and release their faeces that contain some amount of nutrients [5]. Butterflies are food to birds and other predators and are hosts to several parasitoids that suppress crop pests [6] Despite their diversity, ubiquity, and importance with regard to their ecology, behavior, and functional role (e.g., pollination activities), butterflies remain relatively little studied in farmland habitats [5] in the tropics. Several butterfly species are suspected to be important pollinators of wild and cultivated crop species on which human beings depend on for their livelihoods [7]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion