Communities of Fruit-Feeding Butterflies Along a Vegetation Gradient in Central Brazil

Abstract

This is an exploratory study on differences in the composition and abundance of fruit-feeding butterflies along a vegetation gradient in central Brazil that includes gallery forest, cerrado (sensu strictu), and a successional field. At the cerrado site alpha diversity and evenness (per trapping site) were relatively constant and higher than at other sites. The gallery forest site showed the highest beta diversity (species turnover along the vegetation gradient). Both cluster analyses and ordination analyses (Principal Component Analyses) were used to investigate speciesabundance resemblances among trapping sites in order to define the clusters or groups of species (communities) along the vegetation gradient. The three plant formations supported distinct butterfly communities, but some extension trapping sites, such as the ecotone cerrado x forest, the dark forest, and places within the cerrado, also could be considered as distinct communities, or butterfly 'life zones'. Potential factors effecting community composition along the vegetation gradient are discussed.