Diversity and Status of Butterfly Fauna in Greater Himalayan Belt of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

The Greater Himalayan range (5000–6000 meters) runs along the eastern boundary and is cut across by the Sutlej. This belt is very cold climate zones, having very steep hilly terrains with some forested patches of chilgoja pine, willow etc.. Keeping in view the intensive and extensive bioecological studies in the various physiographic conditions of this belt, various natural ecosystems/habitats like forests, grasslands and pastures, rivers, lakes and wetlands, human habitations etc., spread over different biogeographically zones were selected for the present studies. This belt was selected on the basis of certain logistics like time frame, resources and size of the area etc., so as to get the maximum data regarding butterflies diversity. These investigations mainly aimed at knowing the current status of butterflies in different habitats of this zone. In order to study the diversity and status in Greater Himalayan belt of Himachal Pradesh was explored for the presence of butterfly fauna in various ecosystems/habitats types, during different seasons of the years revealed the presence of 17 species of insects belonging to 15 genera and 6 families. During the course of present studies it was observed that Nymphalidae, represented by 6 species was the largest family followed by Satyridae & Pieridae 4 species each and Papilionidae, Danaidae & Acraeidae were represented by only one species each. Analysis of seasonal variation in the diversity of butterflies in different habitat of the areas revealed that maximum diversity has been recorded during pre and post monsoon periods. On the contrary, minimum diversity was seen during winter months of December and January respectively. The goal of systematic is to understand species, what they are and how they are related to reflect such relationships in a formal classification and to provide distinctive names for the group recognized.