Comparison Of Butterfly Diversity In Natural, Semi-Natural And Human-Modified Ecosystems At Kundamankadavu,Thiruvananthapuaram, Kerala, South India .
Main Article Content
Abstract
Among insects, butterflies are the most taxonomically studied group and play key role in ecosystem as pollinators and bioindicator species. The diversity of butterflies inhabiting at Kundamankadavu, Vilavoorkal Panchayath, Thiruvananthapuram was recorded through a Pollard walk method by traversing slowly and observing within 5m radius of the observer for the period of November 2019 to March 2020. Three different ecosystems such as natural, semi-natural and human-modified ecosystems were evaluated for analysis of the diversities of butterfly species. The maximum diversity was observed in the natural ecosystem. A total of 15 species were observed across the three habitat types during the study period. Maximum number of butterflies were observed in natural ecosystem (6) followed by human-modified (5) and minimum in semi-natural ecosystem (4) respectively. Out of these, members belonging to the family Nymphalidae was the most common with 6 species being recorded accounting for 34% of total species. The study area is rich in butterfly diversity and further research could be conducted to obtain more details and documentation on butterfly diversity for the conservation and butterfly park. As the population of these insects decline rapidly due to human activities, habitat destruction, uses of pesticides and unawareness of people about the importance of butterflies, appropriate measures should be adopted for their protection.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
D.P.Tittensor, “Ecology: Ecosystem vulnerability to ocean warming”, Nature,2015,528,43–44.
Steffen,W.,Richardson,K.,Rockstroem,J.,Cornell,S.E.,Fetzer,I., Bennett,E.M.,...So€rlin,S.(2015).Planetaryboundaries:Guidinghumandevelopmentonachangingplanet.Science,347,
Lenoir, J., & Svenning, J. C. (2015). Climate-related range shifts – A globalmultidimensionalsynthesisandnewresearchdirections.Ecog- raphy, 38,15–28.
Thomas, J. A. 2005. Monitoring change in the abundance and distribution of insects using butterflies and other indicator groups. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 360,339–357.
Kocher SD, Williams EH (2000). The diversity and abundance of North American butterflies vary with habitat disturbance and geography. J. Biogeogr. 27: 785-794.
Fleishman E, Murphy DD, Brussard PF. A method for selection of umbrella species for conservation planning. Ecological Applications. 2000; 10:569-579.
Mora, C., Tittensor, D.P., Adl, S.,Simpson,A.G. and Worm, B. (2011). How many species are there on Earth and in the ocean? Plos Biology, 9(8): Article IDe1001127.
Harsh,S. 2014.Hindawi Publishing Corporation.Journal of Insects.Volume 2014,Article ID 254972, 4pages.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/254972s
Aguirre-Gutierrez J, WallisDeVries MF, Marshall L, et al.2017. Butterflies show different functional and species diversity in relationship to vegetation structure and land use. Global Ecology and Biogeogaphyr. 26:1126–1137. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12622
Basavarajappa, S., Gopi Krishna, V. and S, Santhosh.2018.Butterfly species composition and diversity in aprotected area of Karnataka, India.Vol. 10(10), pp. 432- 443.DOI:10.5897/IJBC2018.1215
Paul ,M.and Sultana,A.2020.Studies on butterfly (Insecta: Lepidoptera) diversity across different urban landscapes of Delhi, India.Current Science, Vol. 118, No. 5:820-827.
Pollard E, Moss D, Yates TJ (1995). Population trends of common British butterflies at monitored sites. Journal of Applied Ecology 1:9- 16.
Kunte K (1997). Seasonal patterns in butterfly abundance and species diversity in four tropical habitats in northern Western Ghats. Journal of Bioscience22:593-603.
Walpole MJ, Sheldon IR (1999). Sampling butterflies in tropical rainforest: an evaluation of a transect walk method. Biological Conservation 87:85-91.
Ramesh T, Hussain J, Selvanayagam M, Satpathy KK, Prasad MVR (2010). Patterns of diversity, abundance and habitat associations of butterfly communities in heterogeneous landscapes of the department of atomic energy (DAE) campus at Kalpakkam, South India. International Journal of Biological Diversity Conservation 2(4):75-85.
Rajagopal T, Sekar M, Manimozhi A, Baskar N, Archunan G (2011). Diversity and community structure of butterfly of Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Journal of Environmental Biology 32:201-207.
Jahir HK, Satpathy KK, Prasad MVR, Sridharan VT, Ramesh T, Selvanayagam M (2008). Faunal Diversity Assessment at Depart ment of Atomic Energy (DAE) Campus, Kalpakkam. 268p.
Murphy D.D. and.Weiss, S.B.1988. A long-term monitoring plan for an threatened butterfly, Conservation Biology, vol. 2, pp.367–374, 1988.
Scheper,J.,Holzschuh,A.,Kuussaari,M.,Potts,S.G.,Rundlo€f,M.,Smith,G.,&Kleijn,D.(2013).Environmentalfactorsdrivingtheeffective- nessofEuropeanagri-environmentalmeasuresinmitigatingpollina- torloss–Ameta-analysis.EcologyLetters,16,912–920.
Chettri, P. K., Sharma, K., Dewan, S., & Acharya, B. K. 2018. Butterfly diversity in human-modified ecosystems of southern Sikkim, the eastern Himalaya, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 10(5), 11551-11565. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3641.10.5.11551-11565
Singh, I.J. and Chib, M. (2014). A preliminary checklist of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) of Mendrelgang, Tsirang district, Bhutan. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 6(5): 5755-5768.
Sayeswara, H.A. (2018). Butterfly species diversity, occurrence and abundance in Gandhi park of Shivamogga, Karnataka, India. International Journal of Engineering Science Invention, 7(9): 67-75.
Koneri, R. and Nangoy, M.J. (2019). Butterfly community, structure and diversity in Sangihe Islands, north Sulawesi, Indonesia. Applied Ecology and Environmental Research, 17(2): 2501-2517.
Bubesh, G.M., Chalapathi, R.P.V., Srinivas, R.D., Sekhar, M.S.R.S.C. and Madhu, B.P. (2012). A preliminary observation on butterflies of Seshachlam biosphere reserve, Eastern Ghats Andhra Pradesh, India. World Journal of Zoology, 7(1):83-89.
Arun P.R. and Azeez P.A. On the butterflies of Puyankutty forests, Kerala, India, Zoos print journal. 2003; 18:1276- 1279.
Gardner S.M, Cabido MR, Valladares GR and Diaz S (1995). The influence of habitat structure on arthropod diversity in Argentine semi- arid Chaco forest. J. Veg. Sci. 6: 349–356.
Sethy, J., Satyaranjan, B. and Netrapal, S.C. (2014). Species diversity of butterflies in south eastern part of Namdapha tiger reserve, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Asian Journal of Conservation Biology, 3(1): 75-82.
Sihombing DTH 2002 Hopes Animal I: Introduction and Cultivate (Bogor: Pustaka Wirausaha Muda)
Ro sch,V.,Tscharntke,T.,Scherber,C.,&Bat´ary,P.(2013).Landscapecompo- sition,connectivityandfragmentsizedriveeffectsofgrasslandfragmenta- tiononinsectcommunities.JournalofAppliedEcology,50,387–394.
Grossmueller D.W. and Lederhouse R.C. (1987). The role of nectar source distribution in habitat use and oviposition by the tiger swallowtail butterfly. J. Lepid.’ Soc. 41(3):159–165.
Wynter-Blyth MA. The butterflies of the Nilgiris, Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 1944a; 44(4):536-549.