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PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Does the size of the butterfly enhance detection? Factors influencing butterfly detection in species inventory surveys Anju Velayudhan, Ashokkumar Mohanarangan, George Chandy & S. Biju 26 March 2021 | Vol. 13 | No. 3 | Pages: 17950–17962 DOI: 10.11609/jot.6596.13.3.17950-17962 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 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. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2021 | 13(3): 17950–17962 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6596.13.3.17950-17962 #6596 | Received 21 August 2020 | Final received 03 January 2021 | Finally accepted 24 February 2021 COMMUNICATION Does the size of the buterfy enhance detecton? Factors infuencing buterfy detecton in species inventory surveys Anju Velayudhan 1 , Ashokkumar Mohanarangan 2 , George Chandy 3 & S. Biju 4 1,2,3 Center for Wildlife Studies, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Pookode, Wayanad, Kerala 673576, India. 4 Department of Livestock Producton and Management, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, Kerala 680651, India. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected] (corresponding author), 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected] Abstract: Buterfy species’ abundance and factors infuencing buterfy detecton in Chimmony Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala was studied from April to June 2018. The survey was carried out on 15 tracks of 2-km lengths surveyed two tmes resultng in the sampling efort of 60km. A total of 141 species of buterfies belonging to two orders, six families and 103 genera were observed during the study, of which 15 species were recorded as endemic. The majority of buterfy species belonged to the families Nymphalidae and Lycanidae. The size of buterfies varies signifcantly among families with the largest buterfies recorded in Papilionidae and Nymphalidae and the smallest buterfies from Hesperidae and Lycanidae. The factors that determine buterfy detecton during the count was determined using multple regression. The number of detectons had a linear relaton with abundance, size, and actvites of the buterfies. The model was highly signifcant and explained 86.9% of the variaton in the detecton of buterfies (F=407.8; df=3; p<0.000). Abundance had a primary infuence on detecton followed by the size and actvites of the buterfies. Further studies on relatve detectability of diferent species of buterfies in the diversity and abundance estmaton would help in refning methods of assessment of buterfies. Keywords: Abundance, Chimmony Wildlife Sanctuary, Hesperidae, Lepidoptera, Lycanidae, Nymphalidae Editor: B.A. Daniel, Zoo Outreach Organisaton, Coimbatore, India. Date of publicaton: 26 March 2021 (online & print) Citaton: Velayudhan, A., A. Mohanarangan, G. Chandy & S. Biju (2021). Does the size of the buterfy enhance detecton? Factors infuencing buterfy detecton in species inventory surveys. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(3): 17950–17962. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6596.13.3.17950-17962 Copyright: © Velayudhan 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: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author details: Anju Velayudhan (AV) has completed Post-Graduaton in Wildlife Studies from KVASU-Centre for Wildlife Studies, Pookode, Wayanad. She is passionate about buterfies and she has carried out studies on buterfy species inventory surveys and the life cycle of buterfies. Presently she has been preparing for higher studies. Ashokkumar Mohanarangan (MA) has completed his Masters and Doctoral degree in Wildlife biology, from AVC College, Tamil Nadu. He is passionate about wild animal populaton ecology and conservaton. He is working as Teaching Assistant at KVASU-CWS. George Chandy (GC) has completed masters and PhD, in Veterinary Sciences. He is the Course Director of KVASU-Centre for Wildlife Studies and he is passionate about Wildlife Conservaton and Tribal Welfare. Biju S. (BS) has completed masters and PhD, in Veterinary Sciences. He is working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Livestock Producton and Management. Author contributon: MA developed the concept, formulated hypothesis and did data analysis. AV did the feld data collecton, conceived the idea and carried out the preliminary analysis. GC and BS supervised the work and preparaton of the fnal manuscript. Acknowledgements: The authors are thankful to the chief wildlife warden for grantng permission to conduct the research study in the Chimmony Wildlife Sanctuary (WL10-13885/2017 dated 23.03.2018). We thank the wildlife warden and other feld staf for their support at the tme of the survey. 17950 Does the size of the buterfy enhance detecton? Velayudhan et al. J TT INTRODUCTION It is bounded by Nelliampathy Reserve Forest on the east, Peechi-Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary on the north- Buterfies are universally popular among all west, and Sholayar Reserve Forest on the south (Fig. 1). fauna. They are very beautful and come in various The mean annual rainfall is 3,130mm. The sanctuary has sizes, shapes, and colours. Diferent paterns on a tropical humid climate, with three distnct seasons, dry their body enhance their aesthetc value (Gupta & season (December–March) followed by the south-west Majumdar 2012). The Western Ghats can be classifed monsoon (April–July), and north-east monsoon (August– into three biogeographical parts based on the status November). Temperature varies from 38.5°C to 15.6°C and distributon of buterfies. They are the southern during diferent seasons. The minimum temperature Western Ghats, central Western Ghats and the northern falls below 15.6°C during December. The area is also Western Ghats (Gaonkar 1996). Because of high levels vulnerable to forest fres during the dry season. The of species endemism, the Western Ghats is listed under sanctuary has more than 250 streams and six man-made 34 global biodiversity hotspots. The region is prominent waterholes. Diverse vegetaton and favourable climatc among all other biodiversity hotspots (Myers et al. 2000). conditons in the sanctuary could support many species The buterfy fauna of the Western Ghats consists of 346 of buterfies. species of buterfies under six families (Bhakre & Ogle 2018). Buterfy abundance estmaton Most of the inventory surveys were carried out by Buterfy species abundance was estmated using sampling through forest paths and trails without any fxed-width transect method in CWS from April 2018 informaton on the sample area (Sudheendrakumar et to August 2018. Totally, 15 strip transects of 2km were al. 2000; Sreekumar & Balakrishnan 2001; Aneesh et al. selected along paths with 2-m width on either side of 2013), hence it was not possible to estmate populaton the transect and sampled twice that resulted in the density. The systematc surveys using fxed width sampling efort of 60km. The surveys were conducted transect or using pollard walk (Isaac et al. 2011) helps to between 09.30h and 13.30h when the buterfies were estmate the populaton density of buterfies with the most actve. The buterfies observed in the feld were same sampling efort by recording additonal informaton photographed for further clarifcaton and identfcaton. on length and width of the area sampled. It is essental Buterfies were identfed using feld guides (Kunte to determine the diferent factors that determine the 2006; Palot 2015; Kehimkar 2016; Bhakre & Ogale 2018) detecton probability. Species-wise diferences in the and specialists were consulted in case of uncertainty detecton probability of buterfies were reported in the in the identfcaton of species. The buterfies were studies carried out in the United Kingdom (Isaac et al. photographed using a Nikon 3100 DSLR camera with 2011). 18–50mm and 70–300 mm lens. The buterfy survey The family Nymphalidae is the most dominant family routes were marked with GPS (Fig.1). with a high number of species. A detailed diversity study Statstcal analysis was performed by using Windows- of buterfies in