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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Short Communication Diversity pattern of butterfly communities (Lepidoptera) in different habitat types of Nahan, Himachal Pradesh, India Suveena Thakur, Suneet Bahrdwaj & Amar Paul Singh 26 July 2021 | Vol. 13 | No. 8 | Pages: 19137–19143 DOI: 10.11609/jot.7095.13.8.19137-19143 For Focus, Scope, Aims, and Policies, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/aims_scope For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/policies_various For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. 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Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2021 | 13(8): 19137–19143 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) OPEN ACCESS htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.7095.13.8.19137-19143 #7095 | Received 18 January 2021 | Final received 12 June 2021 | Finally accepted 21 June 2021 SHORT COMMUNICATION Diversity patern of buterfy communites (Lepidoptera) in diferent habitat types of Nahan, Himachal Pradesh, India Suveena Thakur 1 , Suneet Bahrdwaj 2 & Amar Paul Singh 3 1,2 Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, Jorbagh Road, New Delhi 110003, India. 3 Department of Animal Ecology and Conservaton Biology, Wildlife Insttute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun, Utarakhand 248001, India. 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected] Abstract: Diversity and similarity of buterfy communites were deforestaton and forest degradaton (Achard et al. assessed in three diferent habitat types in the mountains of Nahan, 2002), which can have large efects on biodiversity. Himachal Pradesh, from May 2012 to April 2013. A total of 75 species and fve families were reported. Proporton of species was highest in Climate change is another factor afectng biodiversity deciduous dry forest (49%), followed by Shorea (Saal) forest (34%), (Stange & Ayres 2010). Lepidoptera (moths and and Pinus (Cheer) forest (17%). Family Pieridae was dominant followed by Nymphalidae in all three habitat types. Cluster analysis revealed buterfies) are considered bioindicator species because that Cheer forest stood out clearly from Dry and Saal forest which of their sensitvity to climate change (Ronkay 2004). For represents the diferent species compositon. We found signifcant example, recently some buterfies have shifed their diferences in buterfy diversity in the three forest types based on Shannon index, Simpson dominance index, and Buzas & Gibson’s distributon northwards in Europe and North America evenness. These diferences may be atributable to variatons in host (Parmesan 1996; Parmesan et al. 1999; Sparks et al. and nectar plant distributon. Of the habitats surveyed, dry deciduous 2007), and local species compositons have also been forest appeared to be the most suitable for buterfy conservaton. afected by climate change (Woiwod 1997). Keywords: Buterfy, diversity index, species compositon, western Tropical buterfy assemblages have been observed Himalaya. to be largely dependent on closed-canopy forests (Collins & Morris 1985; Suton & Collins 1991), which have a rich variety of vegetaton (Erhardt 1985; Thomas & Mallorie Insect diversity is infuenced by available vegetaton 1985; Viejo 1989; Lawton et al. 1998). Such studies are (DeVries 1992). The diversity of some moths and important for determining paterns of tropical insect beetles are high in natural forests and low in secondary diversity in forest ecosystems (Brown 1991; DeVries et al. forests (Morse et al. 1988; Barlow & Woiwod 1989), but 1997). Various studies have been performed in Himachal buterfy diversity has been found to usually be low in Pradesh in order to document the diversity of buterfies natural forests, moderate in disturbed forests and high on regional basis (Uniyal & Mathur 1998; Singh 2008; in moderately disturbed forests (Blair & Launer 1997; Arora et al. 2009; Bhardwaj & Uniyal 2009; Kumar 2009; Schulze et al. 2004) or near forest banks (Vu 2008, 2009). Chandel et al. 2014). So far, no study has been performed Asian forests are under intense pressure from to document the variaton in buterfy diversity among Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publicaton: 26 July 2021 (online & print) Citaton: Thakur, S., S. Bahrdwaj & A.P. Singh (2021). Diversity patern of buterfy communites (Lepidoptera) in diferent habitat types of Nahan, Himachal Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(8): 19137–19143. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.7095.13.8.19137–19143 Copyright: © Thakur et al. 2021. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: Study was supported by Himachal Pradesh Forest Department. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: We are thankful to the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department for providing logistc support and the necessary permission to conduct this study and also thankful to the director and dean, Wildlife Insttute of India, Dehradun for encouragement and guidance. 19137 J TT Diversity patern of buterfy communites Thakur et al. diferent habitat types of Nahan, Himachal Pradesh. (May–June), monsoon (June–July), post-monsoon Therefore, the present study documented the seasonal (August–September), pre-winter (October–November), (pre-monsoon, monsoon, post-monsoon, pre-winter, winter (December–January) and post-winter (February– winter, and post-winter) variaton of buterfy diversity March). Species diversity was calculated using: among three diferent habitat types. Shannon index (Magurran 1988) H’= −∑pi ln pi. (1) Material and Methods pi= the proporton of the ith species in the total Study was conducted in the three diferent forest sample. types of Nahan town (30.55°N, 77.3°E) located in Sirmaur Simpson dominance index (D) 2 district of Himachal Pradesh with an elevaton of 895 m. D= sum((ni/n) ) where ni is number of individuals of Nahan is situated in the Shivalik hills of western Himalaya. taxon i, The town is surrounded by diferent forest patches, we and Buzas & Gibson’s evenness= eH/S conducted our study in Shorea (Saal) forest (30.554°N where H is the Shannon diversity index and S is the 77.293°E), deciduous dry forest (30.567°N 77.2852°E), number of species. and Pinus (Cheer) forest (30.563°N 77.314°E) (Figure 1). Comparisons of buterfy species compositon among Buterfy surveys were conducted from 8000 h to 1000 diferent forest types was estmated using single linkage h and 1300 h to 1500 h in the afernoon, twice a month cluster analysis based on Bray-Curts similarity. from May 2012 to April 2013. Buterfies were observed and identfed in the feld using a guide by Smetacek Results and Discussion (2016) and doubtul species were collected using the Seventy-fve species of buterfies were recorded sweep net method, identfed & released immediately. (Table 1). In dry deciduous forest, species from fve We divided the data sets into six seasons: pre-monsoon families were recorded: Pieridae (46%), Nymphalidae Figure 1. The three diferent habitat sites of Nahan town of Himachal Pradesh. 19138 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2021 | 13(8): 19137–19143 Diversity patern of buterfy communites Thakur et al. J TT Table 1. Buterfy species reported in diferent forest types. DDF—Dry deciduous forest | SF—Saal forest | CF—Cheer Forest of Nahan. Family Scientfc name Common name DDF SF CF 1 Sarangesa dasahara (Moore, [1866]) Common Small Flat 4 18 7 2 Suastus gremius (Fabricius, 1798) Oriental Palm Bob 1 0 0 3 Pelopidas mathias (Fabricius, 1798) Small Branded Swif 1 0 0 4 Hesperiidae Pelopidas sinensis (Mabille, 1877) Chinese Branded Swif 0 3 0 5 Notocrypta feisthamelii (Boisduval, 1832) Spoted Demon 4 7 0 6 Taractrocera danna (Moore, 1865) White-Spoted Grass Dart 4 1 0 7 Ochlodes brahma (Moore, 1878) Grey-Branded Darter 7 0 0 8 Zizeeria karsandra (Moore, 1865) Dark Grass Blue 15 11 14 9 Zizula hylax (Fabricius, 1775) Tiny Grass Blue 7 0 0 10 Pseudozizeeria maha (Kollar, [1844]) Pale Grass Blue 48 16 6 11 Heliophorus sena (Kollar, [1844]) Sorrel Sapphire 93 58 12 12 Zizina ots (Fabricius, 1787) Lesser Grass Blue 28 20 11 13 Lampides boetcus (Linnaeus, 1767) Pea Blue 65 59 1 14 Acytolepis puspa (Horsfeld, [1828]) Common Hedge Blue 19 11 6 15 Euchrysops cnejus (Fabricius, 1798) Gram Blue 5 0 0 Lycaenidae 16 Arhopala rama (Kollar, [1844])