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Ann Entomol 31(1) : 47-53 (2013) ISSN 0970-3721

DIVERSITY OF BUTTERFLIES LEPIDOPTERA: INSECTA FROM THREEROAD SIDE SITES AT DIFFERENT ALTITUDINAL ZONES OF DISTRICT

NAINITAL UTTARAKHAND INDIA

by

N.C. Joshi1 and Sunder SinghDepartment of Zoology, DAV (P.G) College,

Dehradun (U.K) - 248001, IndiaE-mail: [email protected]

AbstractAnthropogenic activities affect the distribution and diversity of any species in

any area. The goal of this study is to study the effects of anthropogenic activities on thespecies diversity of Lepidoptera inthree of the mainsites on the entrance gate of Kumaounhills in western HimalaV~s, The species composition and species diversity of insectsvari~ in all the three study sites showing the effect of temperature and disturbancesassociated with other ecological and climatic parameters. In the present study a total of484 individuals belongir\~ to 68 species of 11 families were identified. Among whichPieridae was found to be the most dominant family with 215 individuals and constituting44.42 of the total abundance and the most dominant family in terms of species richness

havi~9 45 species. Shannon wiener diversity indeX, abundance and species richnessastound to be maximum for the undisturbed site and minimum for the disturbed site.

Key word~nthropogenic, diversity, Lepidoptera, Kumaoun, Himalaya, Shannon wiener diversityindex

Introduction

Lepidoptera are regarded as one of theimportant component of biodiversity (New andcollins, 1991) and are the second largest orderamong insects made up of approximately1,50,000 species so far known to the literature.These include moth (Hetrocera) and butterflies

(Rhopalocera) of which 70,820 are butterfliesaccording to more recent estimate (Shields,1989). Although several estimate have beenmade from time to time, ranging from a low of13,000 (Owen, 1971) to the maximum of 20,000(Vane Wrights, 1978) earlier.

Butterflies are widely recognised aspotentially valuable ecological indicators. Theirpresence can prove that habitats are suitableand indicate that certain conditions have been

met. The degree of diversity depends upon theadaptability of a species to a particular microhabitat. Anthropogenic activities can cause a

great variation in diversity of insects. Thedimension, population size and diversity of thespecies are most significant biological elementsof an ecosystem (Bliss, 1962). India is knownfor its rich heritage of biological diversity, havingalready documented over 92, 000 species offauna (Alfred et al 1997) and 45,000 species of

flora (Mudgal and Hajra, 1999) in its 10biogeographic regions.

Studies upon relationships between insectdiversity and habitat characteristics have beenmade by different workers in different parts ofthe world (Wolda, 1987; Leps and Spitzer, 1990;Mathew, 1994; Blair and Launer, 1997; Joshi etal 1999; Humphrey et al 1999; Mathew et al2000; Kitahara and Sei, 2001 ; Jukes et al 2002and Kalita and Barua, 2002; Joshi and Arya, 2007;

Addai and Baidoo, 2013). No information isavailable on butterflies of Nainital district ingeneral and studied sites in particular. Therefore,

Received on : 28/08/2012 Accepted on : 02/04/2013

Department of Science, Humanities and Mathematics, Amrapali Institute of Technology and Sciences,Haldwani (U.K) -263139, India E-mail·:[email protected].



8 N.C.JoshiandSunderSingh

here an attempt is made to understand how thedistribution and variation in butterfly diversitychanges in heterogenous habitats with differentecological parameters in various sites in thewestern Himalayan region.

Materials and MethodologyThe present study was carried out during

October 201 0 to May 2011 , in Nainital district ofUttarakhand situated at height of 1938m fromthe sea level. The data was collected in andaround Jeolikote (29°20'29.85 Nand79°32'45.13 E) Ranibagh (29°18'39.68 Nand79°32'45.13 E) and Kathgodam town(29°16'13.56 Nand 79032'52.64 E).

1. Collection of insect samples andpreservation: An extensive and regular monthlycollection ofientomofauna was made duringOctober 2010 to March 2011, Collection ofinsects was carried out using thk Hand pickingmethod (Jonathan, 1990); net sweeping method(Arora, 1990).and tree beating method (Ghosh,

1990). Net steeping were carried out to collect

the insect •. The collected insects wereransferred Vfto bottles containing ethyl acetatesoaked cotton. All the specimens were broughtto the laboratory for further studies. The

specimens were stretched, pinned and oven driedat 60°C for 72 hour and then set into woodenboxes and labelled. The specimen which couldnot be identified in the laboratory on the basis ofavailable keys, were sent to EntomologicalSection of Forest Research Institute, Dehradunand Entomological Biodiversity and Behaviourlab., Department of Zoology & Environmental

Sciences, Gurukula Kangri University, Haridwarfor their identification.

2. Measuring diversity of butterflies: Theinsect data collected in the field over the studyperiod was analyzed and charted for speciesrichness (the number of species), abundance (thenumber of individuals), and equitability(evenness). Using Shannon's diversity index (H¢)the species diversity of lepidopteran insects wascalculated as follows:

H Lpi log pi1=1

Evenness (E) was measured as:

E = H/log(S)Where,

H' symbol for the diversity in a sample ofS species or kinds

Pi relative abundance of ith species orkinds measures, = nlN and

N = total number of individuals of all kindsn;= number of individuals of ith speciesIn= log to base 2S = the number of species in the sample

Resul.ts and Discussion

(1) Temperature: The maximumtemperature was recorded in the month ofOctober in all study sites whereas minimumtemperature was recorded in the month ofJanuary. The data has been presented inTable 01.

Table 01: Monthly variation in temperature (0C) and humidity (%) during the study period(October 201 0- March 2011).

S.No. Month Site 1ite 2ite 3T HHctober -201021.252.424.84ovember 15.323.445.25ecember 9.480.231.64anuary-2011 9.160.681.59ebruary 19.488.329.42arch 23.624.248.29

Ann Entomol 31(1): 47-53 (2013)



Diversity of Butterflies from three road side sites at different altitudinal zones of district Nainital 49

Table : Lepidopteran species recorded from different study sites

S.No. Taxonomic Composition Site 1ite 2ite 3Ranibagh)Kathgodam)

1

Nephis yerburys But recis almana almana Cupha erymanthis -Atella phalantop Drury recis lemomas Precis orithyia -Vanessa caschmirensis Pieris iphata iphata recis hieria hie ria Egrulis marion -

Dodona durga - Vanessa indica Herbrt uretis bulis -Phalonta alcippe alcippoides De Niceville Egrulis marion - • Argyreus hyperlsius --~,allima inachus Boisduva1 - Argyreus sp. -Precis atlites Linn

20

Pieris canida Delias cacharis Drury -Genopteryx rhamni nepalensis - erias hecabe hecabe Linn Anopheis aurota aurota -Pareronia valeria hippie Fabr --Appias indra moore -Hebomoia glaucippe Linn Appias albina darada Ixias pyrenafamiliais But Pareronia valeria hippia F. -Pieris dubernardi chumbiensis De NiceviIIe areronia valeria F. -Pieris dubernardi De Niceville ieris brassicae Linn Aporio aguthonyphryrce -Pieris pyranthe dubernardii De Niceville Colias electo jieldi Menestries



50 N.C. Joshi and Sunder Singh

S.No. Taxonomic Composition Site 1ite 2ite 3RanibaghKathgodamCatopsilia pyranthe Linn ++Catopsilia crocale ++Phalenta alcippe Drury +-Eurema sp +-

42

Euploea core core ++Danaus Chrysippus ++Danus algae Stoll ++Prantica algae -+rantica sita +-

47

Yapthima balada balda --Parage shakaro Koll 11 +-L Jhe verma Koll +-Ypthima balda b. ++

51

Lampides bocticus ++Nqrathurafulla ignara riley +-HlPdes kavana Koll ++

54

flernara gullatus ++

55

Princeps polytes romulus Cramer +-Princeps demoleus Linn ++Princeps sp. ++Papilio polytes romulus Cramer +-Papilio d. Demoleus Linn ++Papiliosp. -+Graphium c/oanthus -+Parides philoxinus Gray +-

63

Eupterote lineosa +-

64

Vrapteryx obuleatea ++

65

Leada ismeni +-

66

Spodotera litura +-Rhesalasp. ++Spodotera sp. --

iR4 2 0

Ann Entomol 31 1 : 47-53 2013



Diversity of Butterflies from three road side sites at different altitudinal zones of district Nainital 51

(2) Humidity: The maximum humidity wasrecorded in the month of October (77 ) in site3, where as it was recorded minimum in the monthof March in site 1 (42 ). The detailed data hasbeen presented in Table 01.

As shown in Table 2, a total of 24 commonspecies were reported from all the study sitesincluding Atella pha/antop Drury, Vanessacaschmirensis Pieris iphata iphata Precis hieriahieria Vanessa indica Herbrt, Pieris canidaGenopteryx rhamni nepa/ensis Terias hecabehecabe Linn., Hebomoia g/aucippe Linn., /xiaspyrena fami/iais But, Pieris dubernardichumbiensis De Niceville, Pieris dubernardi DeNiceville, Co/ias e/ecto fie/di Menestries

Catopsi/ia pyranthe Linn., Catopsi/ia croca/eEup/oea core core Danaus GrlJrysippus Danusalgae Stoll, pthima ba/da b. Lampides bocticusHeodes kavana KolI, Princep~ po/ytes romulusC ramer, Princeps sp. and Vrapferyx obu/eatea.

A total of 68 species were recorded from allthe three study sites. A maximum of 58 species

were reporttd from site 1 followed by site 2 and

a minimutlf 40 species were reported fromsite 3. Max um number of species belonged tofamily Pie dae (45) followed by Nymphalidae(39), Papilionidae (15), Danaidae (13), Lycaenidae(8), Satyridae (7), Noctuidae (5), Hoemetidae (3),Melanites and Hesperidae (2 each) andEupterolidae (1).

Maximum number of individuals belongedto Family Pieridae (32.14 ), followed byNymphalidae (27.86 ), Papilionidae (10.71 ),Danidae (9.29 ), Lycaenidae (5.71 ), Satyridae(5.00 ) and other families viz., Noctuidae,Hesperidae, Hoemetidae, Eupterotidae and

Melanites contribution a small percentage.A total of 484 lepidopteran individuals were

collected from all the study sites during the study

period among which maximum number ofindividuals were collected from site 1 (206)followed by site 2 (143) and minimum number ofindividuals were collected from site 3 (135).Overall maximum number of individuals

belonged to Pieridae (215, 44.42 ) followed byNymphalidae (97, 20.04 ), Papilionidae (51,10.54 ), Danaidae (45, 9.30 ), Lycaenidae (28,5.79 ), Satyridae (23, 4.75 ), Noctuidae (11,2.27 ), Hoemetidae (5, 1.03 ), Hesperidae (4,0.83 ), Melanites (3, 0.62 ) and Eupterolidae(2,0.41 ).

The Shannon diversity (H¢) was found to bemaximum in site 2 (1.886) followed by site 1(1.844) and site 3 (1.735). Maximum number of

individuals and species were recorded from site1 as it was the least disturbed site which wasfollowed by site 2 which has moderatedisturbance. Whereas, minimum number ofindividuals, species and decline in diversity wasrecorded in site 3 as it was the most disturbedsite among the three study sites.

It has been estimated that approximately1450 species of Lepidopteran fauna (Insecta:Rhopalocera) exists in the country, which includeabout 325 species from Garhwal Himalayas(Mackinnon and de Niceville, 1997, 98; Ollenbach,1930-31) and 350 species from Kumaon hills(Hannyngton, 1910-11).

Singh (1963) reported 5 species belongingto 4 families of order Lepidoptera from NorthWest Himalaya. Joshi (1989) has reported 7species belonging 4 families of this order from agrass land at Naukuchiatal, Nainital. Arora et t

(1995) reported 223 species of butterfliesbelonging to 9 families from Western Himalayas,

Uttar Pradesh. Sargeev (1998) reported thatmoderate human disturbance due to which aheterogeneous landscape was created, increased

Table 03: Lepidopteran Community Structure during the study period

Site No. Diversity (H)bundance(N)venness (E)ichness (S).84406.04581.88643.16121.73535.0830



N.C. Joshi and Sunder Singh

the diversity of Orthopteran insects, whileexcessive man made activities Le. grazing,ploghing ~nd logging destroyed the landscapeand decreased the diversity. Joshi et al. 1999reported that the Acridid diversity was sensitiveto grazing. Kithara and Sei (2001) studied theeffects of human land use and disturbance onbutterfly communities in the cool temperate zoneof central Japan and reported that the butterflycommunities in semi-natural (undisturbed)habitats had higher species richness anddiversity than those in human-modified (highlydisturbed) ones. Uniyal (2002) reported 35species of butterflies belonging to 25 genera and4 families from Nanda Devi Bio Sphere Reserve,India.

Least number of species aM individualswere recordedM1site 3 (Kathgodam town) as itis a sub urban area and the cOrl)l )1onand onlyway to enter Kumaoun hills. It hav~ heavy trafficload as all the vehicles going up hills to Kumaounhave to pass through this city; thus it is the most

disturbed si e. mong the three study sites.Temperature .site 3 was normally found to bealways great an the other two sites; this mayalso be a reason for the variation in the diversityand evenness of species. Maximum number of

species i.e. species richness was found tomaximum in site 1 followed by site 2 and site 3.

Thus the present study points out that thatdisturbance due to anthropogenic activities andvariation in temperature cause a great variationin the diversity, evenness and richness of insectspecies. These factors thus may also be causingbiodiversity loss of the present study area.

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