Butterflies As Indicators of Climate Change – a Baseline Study in Bangalore City
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BUTTERFLIES AS INDICATORS OF CLIMATE CHANGE – A BASELINE STUDY IN BANGALORE CITY OCTOBER, 2015 – AUGUST, 2016 Project team: Principal Investigator: Dr. O. K Remadevi, Consultant Research Assistants: Mr. Roshan D. Puranik Mr. Deepak Naik Mr. Sooraj S. Guidance and Support: Smt. Ritu Kakkar, IFS, Director General Smt. Saswati Mishra, IFS, Director Sri. K.H.Vinay Kumar, IFS, Director (Research) CENTRE for CLIMATE CHANGE (CCC) Environmental Management and Policy Research Institute Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment Government of Karnataka Disclaimer This report is prepared with due diligence and professionalism by collecting data available and accessible at the time of research. Views expressed in this report are of project team and not that of Environmental Management & Policy Research Institute (EMPRI) or Government of Karnataka (GOK) or Sponsoring Agency. Neither the EMPRI, GOK nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, nor any of their contractors, subcontractors or their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or any third party's use or the results of such use of any information provided in this report. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favouring by the GoK or EMPRI or any agency thereof or its contractors or subcontractors. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the EMPRI, GOK or any agency thereof. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Due gratitude is expressed to Smt. Ritu Kakkar, IFS, Director General, EMPRI for kindly accepting the proposal on butterflies and providing the financial assistance and technical guidance for the conduct of the study. Constant encouragement and support was given by Smt. Saswati Mishra, IFS, Director, EMPRI throughout the project and her help to get necessary permission to work at Bannerghatta National Park is gratefully acknowledged. Shri K.H. Vinayakumar, IFS, Director (Research) at EMPRI was very encouraging and his support led to the successful conduct of this project. Thanks are due to the members of Research and Training Advisory Committee and Climate Change Advisory Committee of EMPRI for useful suggestions and approval for the conduct of the study. The study team consisting of Research assistants, Mr. Roshan, Mr. Deepak and Mr. Sooraj were fully dedicated in the field work, data analysis and report preparation and without their whole hearted hard work and cooperation, the study would not have been successful. Their interest and efforts are thankfully acknowledged. Mr Chaturved Shet, a butterfly enthusiast was very helpful in the field identification of butterflies. His services were invaluable and gratefully recorded. The kind helps and suggestions from Mr. Karthikeyan, Mr Harish Bhat and Prof C.A Viraktamath are worth mentioning in this context. We express our sincere gratitude to Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Karnataka and Dr. Sunil Panwar, IFS, Director of Bannerghatta National Park for facilitating and allowing us to conduct the surveys and collect the data on butterflies at Bannerghatta National Park. We also express our sincere gratitude to Shri. Munithimappa, Range Forest Officer, Bannerghatta Range and his staff for arranging the necessary transport and man power during the fieldtrips. Thanks are due to authorities of Lal Bagh, Cubbon Park and Doresanipalya Forest Campus for allowing the study team to conduct the survey and make observations in these major green spaces of Bangalore city. Our since gratitude is due to Smt. Renee M. Borges (Professor and Chairperson) and Shri. H. Khader Khan (Dean) for allowing us to carry out the survey and data collection at Indian Institute of Sciences Campus and University of Agricultural Sciences Campus respectively. All the researchers in the Centre for Climate Change at EMPRI (Dr. Papiya Roy, Dr. Manjunatha, M and Smt. Chitra, P) were very cooperative and supported the studies. Thanks are due to Mr. C. Ramesh, PDO, EMPRI for his critical suggestions on the manuscript. Last but not the least, we thank all the research and administrative staff at EMPRI and others who have directly or indirectly helped us to carry out this project successfully. Dr. O. K Remadevi Principal Investigator Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 1.1 CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS EFFECTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 1.2 BUTTERFLIES AND THEIR ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 1.3 BUTTERFLIES AS INDICATORS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 1.4 DIVERSITY AND SYSTEMATICS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 HESPERIIDAE -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5 PAPILIONIDAE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 RIODINIDAE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 PIERIDAE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 LYCAENIDAE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 NYMPHALIDAE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 1.5 HOST PLANTS AND LIFE CYCLE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 2. OBJECTIVES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 RATIONALE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9 3. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 3.1 STUDIES ON BUTTERFLIES IN INDIA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 3.2 DISTRIBUTION, DIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE OF BUTTERFLIES -------------------------------------------------------------- 13 IN WESTERN GHATS REGION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 STUDIES IN KARNATAKA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 PREVIOUS STUDIES IN BANGALORE CITY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 3.3 EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE ON BUTTERFLIES AND THEIR LIFE CYCLE ------------------------------------------------------ 16 3.4 BUTTERFLIES AS ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 3.5 EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON BUTTERFLIES --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 3.6 BUTTERFLY DIVERSITY IN RELATION TO ECOCLIMATIC FACTORS ------------------------------------------------------------ 21 4. MATERIALS AND METHODS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 4.1 STUDY AREAS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 Gandhi Krishi Vignan Kendra ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 Indian Institute of Science ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 23 Cubbon Park -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 Lal Bagh -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 Doresanipalya Forest Campus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 24 Bannerghatta National Park and Biological Park --------------------------------------------------------------------------24 4.2 MAPS OF STUDY AREAS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 25 4.3 SEASONS OF STUDY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 4.4 SURVEY METHOD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 4.5 DATA ON TEMPERATURE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 4.6 DATA ANALYSIS----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 Diversity and Abundance ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------