Question

Obtain Information about the diversity of butterflies.collect detalied information about what would have to be done to establish a butterfly garden in school

Answer 1

WWF-India, Mandla, Madhya Pradesh 481661, India

Received 17 July 2014; Revised 12 October 2014; Accepted 16 November 2014; Published 25 November 2014

Academic Editor: Rostislav Zemek

Copyright © 2014 Sprih Harsh. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

A study to find out the diversity of butterflies at the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, was carried out over a period of six months from October 2013 to March 2014. A total of 55 butterfly species belonging to 5 families, namely, Hesperiidae (7 species), Papilionidae (4 species), Pieridae (10 species), Lycaenidae (13 species), and Nymphalidae (21 species), were recorded (with photographic record) during the study from three different habitats of campus: open scrub, dry deciduous, and urbanized habitat. Shannon diversity indices and Pielou’s evenness index were calculated for all the habitats. Shannon index was found to be highest for open scrub (3.76). Out of 54 species,Eurema brigitta was the most dominant species followed by Eurema hecabe, Junonia lemonias, and Phalanta phalantha. Dominance of these species can be explained by the presence of their larval and host plants in the campus.