Patterns in distribution of butterfly assemblages at different habitats of Corbett Tiger Reserve, Northern India

Abstract

Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) located in state Uttarakhand is the first protected area established for in-situ conservation of biodiversity in India. Despite its national importance, there exists lacunae in knowledge on butterflies, important from the viewpoints of effective planning and implementation of conservation actions in the CTR. Using standardized methods, the present study conducted between 2013 to 2014 was aimed to record butterfly species composition and distribution in different sampling regimes of the CTR in relation to habitat types and disturbances. Study revealed a total of 2621 individual butterflies of 56 species under 5 families. Among them, 24 species belong to the Nymphalidae family, 14 species to the Pieridae, 9 species to the Lycaenidae, 5 species to the Papilionidae and 4 species to the Hesperiidae. 50% of the total species were recorded as ubiquitous and 30 species are new records to the CTR. Species such as Catopsilia pomona (Fabricius), Papilio polytes (Cramer), Eurema hecabe (Linnaeus), Catopsilia pyranthe (Linnaeus) were most abundant and Athyma zeroca (Moore), Sarangesa purendra (Moore), Cyrestis thyodamas (Boisduval), Polyura agraria (Swinhoe) were least abundant species. Variations in the calculated diversity indices across the seasons were observed; wherein, summer season exhibited maximum value for Shannon-Diversity index, followed by late monsoon and early winter. Lowest diversity of butterflies was observed during the periods of late winter. Presence of seven species under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act and five species as rare, substantiate the importance of pristine conditions prevailing in the protected landscape of the reserve. Ongoing tourism activities and habitat alterations threatening butterfly diversity and ecological integrity of the CTR, were also discussed.