Season and landscape wise distribution of butterflies in Tamhini, northern Western Ghats, India

Abstract

Our study takes the first step of documenting butterfly diversity and distribution along the seasonal gradient and across five landscape elements. We censused butterfly community in Tamhini, northern Western Ghats, across six seasons and five landscape elements using line transect method for two years. A total of 69 butterfly species belonging to 52 genera and five families were encountered in the study area. The data was analysed for α and β diversity. There were two peaks in the α diversity in summer and early winter. Monsoon fauna was distinctly different from that of other seasons. Maximum diversity was observed in the partially disturbed areas with human habitation. Landscape type satisfying variable niche showed maximum α diversity. Our findings in the seasonal and landscape wise distribution of butterflies are important with respect to monitoring animal diversity and defining conservation strategies in the northern Western Ghats.

Seasonal diversity of butterflies and their larval food plants in the surroundings of upper Neora Valley National Park, a sub-tropical broad leaved hill forest in the eastern Himalayan landscape, West Bengal, India

“…Higher values of species richness as observed during autumn, summer and monsoon could be indicative of the presence of specific butterfly larval host plants during this season. This pattern is consistent with that of Wynter-Blyth (1957), Kunte (1997) and Padhye et al (2006). Month wise fluctuation in the sampling size of butterflies could be attributed to the distinct changes from the wet season (May-October) to the dry season (November-April) forms (Emmel & Leck 1970;Saikia et al 2010) in butterflies.…”

“…Studies in India (Kunte 1997;Padhye et al 2006;Bhusal & Khanal 2008) have established a relationship between butterfly species richness, density and diversity with respect to seasonality. For instance, tropical butterflies have been shown to be sensitive to seasonal changes in rainfall (Barby 1995;Hill et al 2003).…”

Variation in butterfly diversity and unique species richness along different habitats in Trishna Wildlife Sanctuary, Tripura, northeast India

“…Members of the Nymphalidae were always dominant in the tropical region because most of the species are polyphagous in nature, consequently helping them to live in all the habitats. Additionally, many species of this family are strong, active fliers that might help them in searching for resources in large areas (Eswaran and Pramod 2005;Krishna Kumar et al 2007;Raut and Pendharkar 2010;Padhye et al 2006).…”

Fish diversity and assemblage structure in Ken River of Panna landscape, central India

“…The indices were used to compare the species distribution, richness and diversity across the study sites. Quantitative data of species along with the number of individuals belonging to each species were used to calculate percent similarity index using Bray-Curtis similarity index based on Padhye et al (2006). Dendrograms were constructed to understand the similarity of fish assemblage structure between the sampling sites.…”