An inventory of butterfly species in relation to food sources and climatic factors influencing their diversity and richness in a semievergreen forest of Bangladesh

Abstract

An inventory of butterfly species in relation to food sources and climatic factors influencing their diversity and richness was studied from March 2015 to February 2017 in Satchari National Park. We recorded 195 butterfly species representing 125 genera under 21 subfamilies and 6 families. Nymphalidae was the more dominant family contributed 32.8% of the total species followed by Lycaenidae (25.7%), Hesperiidae (24.6%), Pieridae (8.2%), Papilionidae (7.7%) and Riodinidae (1.0%). The highest species diversity and richness were reported from pre-monsoon. Out of 195 species identified in the Satchari National Park, 79 species (40.5%) were observed sipping out only nectar from different flower sources while others obtained their food from both floral and non-floral resources such as puddles, excreta, carrion, rotten fruit and blood of vertebrates. Highest number of butterflies were documented from Lantana camara (73) followed by Chromolaena odorata (60), Leea indica (30), Tridax procumbens (23) and Mikania micrantha (15) respectively. The butterflies were most frequently attracted to white flowers (52.2%) during nectar feeding. Temperature was positively correlated with the total number of species (r=0.417, p=0.04) whereas rainfall and humidity were negatively correlated with the total number of species (r=-0.43, p=0.03 and r=-0.50, p=0.01).

Keywords

• butterfly
• diversity
• richness
• food sources
• climatic factors
• semi-evergreen forest