Distribution of Butterfly Species Associated with Environmental Factors in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The species diversity monitoring of butterflies in Sri Lanka is considered in this study under certain environmental factors.  Species richness, and Shannon and Simpson’s diversity indices were calculated to understand the variation of the distributions of butterfly species. Maximum and minimum diversity and richness were observed from Rathnapura and Puththalama districts in Sri Lanka, respectively.  Based on the Diamond’s assembly rules and Probabilistic models, it was noted that most of the butterflies were randomly distributed, and there was little predictable co-occurrence between species pairs. To study the distributional patterns of butterfly species with environmental factors, five different types of regression models were fitted by considering the occurrences of each species. The results clearly indicated that the distribution of butterfly species varies from species to species according to the different environmental factors. Further, the occurrence of most of the butterfly species depends on temperature and total rain fall. Prediction of species occurrences with respect to the environmental factors can be done by using the best fitted model of each species. The methodology and results of the study can be adapted to monitor the biodiversity of a certain area.