Does Grazing Influence Bee Diversity?

Abstract

We conducted a year long survey of the fruit-feeding butterfly fauna of sacred forest groves and forest reserves of Ghana. About one-third of all fruit-feeding species recorded for Ghana were trapped, but our total sample had not yet reached the point of species saturation. Rarefied species richness was higher in the larger forest reserves than in the small sacred groves, as predicted by species-area relationship theory. Bebearia and Euriphene showed the greatest decline in species richness across sites, demonstrating that common, widespread species can be vulnerable to fragmentation.