Diversity of Butterflies (Lepidoptera) in three different Habitat Types of Manali Town, Himachal Pradesh

Suveena Thakur; Suneet Bahrdwaj; Amar Paul Singh

doi:10.36808/if/2022/v148i10/157475

Diversity of Butterflies (Lepidoptera) in three different Habitat Types of Manali Town, Himachal Pradesh

Authors

Suveena Thakur Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, New Delhi
Suneet Bahrdwaj Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, New Delhi
Amar Paul Singh Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, New Delhi

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36808/if/2022/v148i10/157475

Keywords:

Lepidoptera, Species diversity, Abundance, Montane temperate forest, Western Himalaya.

Abstract

Preliminary study was carried out in three different habitat types, Deodar Forest (DF), Mixed forest (MF) and agricultural fields (AF) of Manali town, Kullu, Himachal Pradesh in September and October 2020. A total of 32 species belonging to 4 families and 26 genera were recorded. Species composition was found higher in Agricultural fields (mean 5.47 ± 6.96 SD) followed by Mixed forest type (mean 4.72 ± 8.38) and lowest in Deodar forest type (mean 4.19 ± 11.54). Species diversity of family Nymphalidae and Pieridae were found dominant whereas, abundance of family Lycaenidae was the highest in the study regions. Among all surveyed habitat types, Cluster analysis revealed that highest diversity and abundance of butterflies was supported by Agricultural fields or we can say human dominated landscape which represented the most suitable habitat for butterflies in terms of conservation.

References

Bhardwaj M. and Uniyal V.P. (2009). Assessment of Butterflies in a montane temperate forest of Allain-Duhaingan catchment in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, India-proposed hydroelectric project site. Indian Forester, 135(10): 1357-1366.

Blair R.B. and Launer A.E. (1997). Butterfly diversity and humanland use: species assemblages along an urban gradient, Biological Conservation, 80(1): 113–125.

Blair R.B. (1999). Birds and Butterflies along an Urban Gradient: Surrogate Taxa for Assessing Biodiversity?, Ecological Applications, 9(1): 164- 170.

Das G.N., Gayen S., Ali M., Jaiswal R.K., Lenin E.A. and Chandra K. (2018). Insecta: Lepidoptera (Butterflies). In, Faunal Diversity of Indian Himalaya: (Published by the Director, Zool. Surv. India, Kolkata), pp.611-650.

DeVries R.G. (1992). Outlines of Entomology, Chapman and Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, Fla, USA, 7th edition.

Kocher S.D. and Williams E.H. (2000). The diversity and abundance of North American butterflies vary with habitat disturbance and geography. Journal of Biogeography, 27: 785-794.

Kunte K. (1997). Seasonal patterns in butterfly abundance and species diversity in four tropical habitats in Northern Western Ghats. Journal of Bioscience, 22(5): 593-603.

Kunte K. (2000a). Butterfly diversity of Pune city along the human impact gradient. Journal of Ecological Society, 13(14): 40-45.

Kunte K. (2000b). India - A Lifescape: Butterflies of Peninsular India. Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, Universities Press. 270p.

Larsen T.B. (1988). The butterflies of the Nilgiri mountains of the Southern India (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 85(1): 26-43.

Mennechez G., Schtickzelle N. and Baguette M. (2003). Metapopulation dynamics of the bog fritillary butterfly: comparison of demographic parameters and dispersal between a continuous and a highly fragmented landscape. Landscape Ecology, 18: 279-291.

Pollard E. (1991). Synchrony of population fluctuations: the dominant influence of widespread factors on local butterfly populations. Oikos, 60(1): 7-10. [October 1022

Sawchik J., Dufrene M. and Lebrun P.H. (2005). Distribution patterns and indicator species of butterfly assemblages of wet meadows in southern Belgium. Belgian Journal of Zoology, 135(1): 43-52.

Schulze C.H., Steffan-Dewenter I. and Tsharntke T. (2004). Effectof land use on butterfly communities at the rainforestmargin: a case study from Central Sulawesi,” in Land Use, Nature Conservation and the Stability of Rainforest Margins in Southeast Asia, Gerold, G., Fremerey, M. and Guhardja, E. Eds., Springer, Berlin, Germany, pp. 281–297

Tiple A.D., Deshmukh V.P. and Dennis R.L.H. (2006). Factors influencing nectar plant resource visits by butterflies on a university campus: implications for conservation. Nota Lepidopteralogica, 28: 213–224.

Tiple A.D. (2011). Butterflies of Vidarbha region Maharashtra, India; a review with and implication for conservation. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 3(1): 1469–1477

Vu L.V. and Quang Vu C. (2011). Diversity pattern of butterfly communities (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidae) in different habitat types in a tropical rain forest of southern Vietnam. International Scholarly Research Notices.