Diversity of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera)  in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

Sabindra K. SAMAL,Aryjit SATAPATHY,Nivedita PATTANAIK

doi:10.15835/nsb13411074

Abstract

The loss and fragmentation of habitat caused by rapid urbanization can have devastating effects, both at regional and global level. In this study, butterfly species diversity has been assessed in Bhubaneswar, India, as a model geographical region for understanding the biology of the local population and its dynamics. In total 107 butterfly species have been documented, with the highest number of species being recorded from the family Nymphalidae (31.77%), followed by Lycaenidae (25.23%), Hesperiidae (23.36%), Pieridae (11.21%) and Papilionidae (8.41%). Out of these, 17 species are new reports for the city and nine species are legally protected in India under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Sørensen’s diversity index and one-way ANOVA have been used to establish the relation between species diversity and habitat. The present investigation provides baseline data for future research and conservation of species in places like the model city, which face rapid urbanization.

Highlights

Order Lepidoptera comprises butterflies and moths which belong to the class Insecta (Kunte, 2000; Kawahara and Breinholt, 2014)
The family wise species distribution in different study sites showed that the highest number is observed in S8 (88 species) followed by S7 (77 species), S9 (74 species), S5 (63 species), S6 (48 species), S11 (43 species), S10 (42 species), S1 (36 species), S3 (34 species), S2 (31 species), and the lowest number is observed in S4 (27 species) as illustrated (Figure 9C)
One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) data shows that F statistic (F stat) value is 13.92, value of F crit is 2.55, and P < 0.05 for butterfly species in different families within the study range

Summary

Introduction

Order Lepidoptera comprises butterflies and moths which belong to the class Insecta (Kunte, 2000; Kawahara and Breinholt, 2014). Butterflies occupy a vital position in the ecosystem, acting as pollinators, pollution indicators, good source of food, and have aesthetic importance (Klein et al, 2007; Syaripuddin et al, 2015). Their studies have made significant contributions towards the understanding of biogeography, behaviour, coevolution, conservation, development, ecological genetics, global warming, mimicry, population ecology, sexual selection, speciation, symbiotic associations, and systematics (Aduse-Poku et al, 2015; Kozak et al, 2015; Kronforst and Papa, 2015; Manesi et al, 2015; Wang Wei et al, 2016; van Bergen et al, 2017). The journal will continue to appear quarterly, as before, with four annual numbers

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion