Butterfly diversity throughout midnapore urban area in west bengal, india

Abstract

Buterfies have always atracted atenton due to their unique colouratons. As most buterfies are highly specifc in their niche utlisaton, abundance of the species in a locality may advocate status of ecosystem functoning and environmental health. In recent tmes, diferent anthropogenic actvites and unscientfc management of nature have resulted in a decline of buterfy communites at a rapid rate. The objectve of the present study is to study buterfy diversity in and around Midnapore Town, West Bengal, India. A total of 82 buterfy species belonging to six families were recorded during the two years of the study period. Of the six families Nymphalidae is the most abundant family comprising 42.54% of the total populaton followed by Lycaenidae (22.5%), Pieridae (19.03%), Papilionidae (8.58%), Hesperiidae (7.24%), and Riodinidae (0.11%). Diferent diversity indices, Lorenz curve, Whitaker plot, and Gini index show high diversity in the buterfy community structure. As Midnapore Town is the connectng area between the plains of Bengal and Chota Nagpur Plateau, the present study may be the baseline for further ecological, environmental, and conservaton studies.