Diversity, abundance, and habitat associations of butterfly species in bondla wildlife sanctuary of Goa, India

Abstract

Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary is a very popular wilderness destination for the tourists visiting Goa. One of smallest wildlife protected area in the state, its flora comprises of a mixture of evergreen and moist deciduous forests, besides some riparian patches. The tourist zone of the sanctuary has artificial landscape in form of animal enclosures, a formal garden and orchards. Against the backdrop of increasing interest in eco-tourism, it was envisaged to compile a species inventory of butterflies of this region, and find out the best seasons for butterfly sightings. The investigation on species diversity and abundance was carried out in three distinct habitat types, within the sanctuary viz. forests, orchards and formal gardens. Habitat associations of 91 butterfly species were determined by analyzing weekly sighting records from the three habitat types. The recorded species belonged to 66 genera, 14 subfamilies and five families. Nymphalidae dominated the list with 40 species, followed by Lycaenidae (19 species), Papilionidae (14 species), Pieridae (12 species), and Hesperiidae (6 species). Of the total butterfly species listed in this sanctuary, 71 species are habitat generalists and 20 species are habitat specialists, 13 figure in the scheduled categories of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, and eight are endemics. Based on the analysis of weekly data, flight periods and seasonality of species have been worked out. The findings have been based on one year of fieldwork. Species have been classified based on their relative estimates of abundance. Such studies on monitoring the species diversity and abundance of butterflies can give valuable information on their population dynamics.