Status , abundance , and seasonality of butterfly fauna at Kuvempu University Campus , Karnataka , India

A survey was conducted to record the diversity, status, and occurrence of butterfly species in the Kuvempu University Campus, Jnana Sahyadri, Shivamogga District, Karnataka during February 2010 to January 2011. A total of 115 species of butterflies in 77 genera, belonging to five families were recorded. Nymphalidae comprised the highest number of species, followed by Lycaenidae, Pieridae, Papilionidae, and Hesperiidae. The study area hosts 14 species of butterflies protected under various schedules of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Nine species recorded are endemic to the Western Ghats of peninsular India and Sri Lanka. Hence there is an urgent need to protect this habitat by adapting long-term monitoring programs to manage and conserve the butterfly diversity.


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Butterflies are good indicators of habitat quality, climatic conditions, seasonal, and ecological changes; butterfly studies can be used to formulate conservation strategies (Beccaloni & Gaston 1995). India has 1,800 species and subspecies of butterflies (Kunte et al. 2018), and peninsular India hosts 350 species including many endemics, most found in the Western Ghats (Kunte 2008). Three-hundred-and-seventeen species have been recorded from the southern Western Ghats, 316 from the central Western Ghats and 200 from the northern Western Ghats (Gaonkar 1996).
The diversity of butterflies in a given area reflects the overall plant diversity and the presence of suitable habitats (Kakati 2006), making them good indicators of health of the ecosystems (Padhye et al. 2006) that can be used to assess the impact of various threats (Gaonkar 1996;Kunte 2000Kunte , 2008Kehimkar 2008) and formulating conservation priorities for management of biodiversity. Thus, there is a need for studies of butterfly community structure and dynamic group structure in different regions to assess the impact of changing natural habitats on the diversity and distribution of butterflies.

Study Area
Kuvempu University Campus is located between 13.7359° N and 75.6324° E at an elevation of 680-720m. The campus is situated 24km south-east of Shivamogga City and 4km north of Bhadra Reservoir amidst dry deciduous forest, and is located on the edge of Bhadra Tiger Reserve and Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. The campus covers an area of 326 acres, with 56% of the land being under forest (undisturbed area) and the remaining 44% occupied by buildings and associated landscaping J TT (Fig. 1). The predominant vegetation is typically dry deciduous forest having considerable similarity with the wildlife sanctuary.

Sampling method
The line transect method developed by the Institution of Terrestrial Ecology (Pollard 1979) was followed to monitor the diversity. Three line transects were set up, which were approximately 500m long and 10m wide, passing through different landscape element types. The transect lines were walked at a constant pace for approximately half an hour. Transects were walked from 07.30 to 11.00 h when butterflies are most active. Transects were walked every month for a period of one year from February 2010 to January 2011. Butterflies were identified with the help of field guide (Kunte 2000). Specimen collection was strictly avoided. The taxonomic status of butterflies is adopted from Kunte (2000). The status was scored using presence-absence scoring method and then percentage of abundance was calculated to determine the status. On the basis of abundance, butterflies were categorized under different score classes such as 80-100% as very common (VC), 60-80% as common (C), 40-60% as occasional (O), 20-40% as rare (R), and below 20% as very rare (VR) (Aneesh et al. 2013).
The seasonality of butterflies in the campus was then compared with trends available in other studies of Western Ghats, from Peringome Vayakkara Panchayath, Kerala (Sneha 2018) to see the variation in this forest type.
Butterflies are seasonal in their occurrence. They are common for only a few months and rare or absent in other parts of the year (Kunte 2000). During the study, the seasonality in the occurrence of different butterfly species was also recorded ( Table 1). Figure 2 represents seasonal wise variations in the abundance and distribution of butterfly species. The number of species encountered was highest during winter at 102 species, and decreased to 85 in summer and 64 during the monsoon; 39 species were sighted throughout the year.
Butterflies are sensitive to changes in habitat and climate, which influence their distribution and J TT    3) were found to be consistently highest among the Nymphalidae in winter and summer and throughout the year. Among the Lycaenidae variation was equal in winter and summer, high in the monsoon and lower throughout the year. Among the Pieridae and Papilionidae it was persistently decreasing from winter, summer and monsoon throughout the year and among the Hesperiidae variation was inconsistent across seasons, being high in winter and monsoon, and low in summer and throughout the year. The level of endemism varies within India depending upon the accessibility of larval as well as adult food resources, which determine the occurrence and migration of butterflies (Gilbert & Singer 1975). Fortyfive species are endemic to southern India (Thomas 1966 (Kunte 2008).
Conservation activities such as monitoring and mapping biodiversity have played a key role in determining diversity status (Margules & Pressey 2000). When compared to other habitats of the Western Ghats, overall species diversity in the study area was very low. The diversity and abundance of butterfly species is greatly associated with the availability of food plants in the surrounding habitat (Kunte et al. 1999). From this study, it was found that there was frequent clearing in the study area of weeds, which provided nectar as well  as larval host plants, resulting in low floral diversity that supported low butterfly diversity (Image 17).
The study also revealed the impacts of factors such as habitat alterations and improper drainage system (Image 18). The study area is a dry deciduous forest type with hilly terrains, which during the monsoon receives sufficient rainfall, but the drainage system carries water out of the area by flowing down towards the low lying areas, instead of allowing it to percolate into the forest soil. Consequently, there is low water retention for the plants to grow leaving the campus dry at the end of winter and during summer, providing poor habitat for butterflies. Also, the elimination of grasses, shrubs and trees during landscaping has resulted in loss of habitats for plants and butterflies, leading to local extinctions of species (Balmer & Erhardt 2000) (Images 19, 20).
Our results emphasize the importance of campus estates as habitats for butterflies. If landscaping is carefully planned and campus gardens are properly maintained, the diversity of butterfly fauna may increase on the campus, providing a rich ground for butterfly conservation as well as for research. Occurrence of scheduled and endemic species in the study area indicates an urgent need to protect this habitat by adapting long-term monitoring programs to manage and conserve the butterfly diversity of Kuvempu University Campus, Shivamogga District. www.threatenedtaxa.org The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservation globally by publishing peer-reviewed articles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All articles published in JoTT are registered under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License unless otherwise mentioned. JoTT allows allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of articles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

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