Butterfly communities in the natural landscape of West Khentej, northern Mongolia: diversity and conservation value Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultäten der Georg-August-Universität zu Göttingen vorgelegt von Gantigmaa Chuluunbaatar aus Khentej in der Mongolei Göttingen 2004 D 7 Referent: Prof. Dr. M. Mühlenberg Korreferent: Prof. Dr. M. Schaefer Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: Donnerstag, 27. Januar 2005 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................1 2. STUDY AREA.................................................................................................................5 2.1 Climate..................................................................................................................7 2.2 Vegetation types....................................................................................................7 2.3 Study plots ..........................................................................................................11 3. METHODS...................................................................................................................18 3.1 Standardised catch ..............................................................................................18 3.2 Herbaceous plant analysis...................................................................................18 3.3 Species identification..........................................................................................19 3.4 Food plants...........................................................................................................19 3.5 Geographic distribution and habitat selection.....................................................20 3.6 Calculation of community parameters .................................................................20 3.7 Similarity between habitats and niche width .......................................................25 3.8 Ecology of selected species .................................................................................26 3.9 Mobility of adults of selected species..................................................................27 3.10 Adult population size of Lycaena virgaureae .....................................................28 4. RESULTS.....................................................................................................................29 4.1 Climatic conditions ............................................................................................29 4.2 Herbaceous plant community ..............................................................................30 4.2.1 Plant species richness ...............................................................................33 4.2.2 Lognormal distribution of herbaceous plant species ................................35 4.3 Butterfly fauna in West Khentej ..........................................................................36 4.4 Community parameters of the butterfly fauna of West Khentej.........................39 4.4.1 Butterfly species richness.........................................................................39 4.4.2 Butterfly abundance..................................................................................42 4.4.3 Dominance - abundance pattern of the butterfly fauna. ...........................45 4.4.4 Differences in butterfly communities between habitats ...........................47 4.5 Geographical classification and habitat selection of the species .........................54 4.6 Food plants ..........................................................................................................61 4.7 Population dynamics of selected species .............................................................66 4.8 Mobility of adults of selected species..................................................................69 4.9 Adult population size of Lycaena virgaureae......................................................74 4.10 Conservation value of the Khentej for butterflies ...............................................76 5. DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................77 5.1 Climatic................................................................................................................77 5.2 Herbaceous vegetation cover...............................................................................82 5.3 Butterfly diversity in West Khentej .....................................................................85 5.4 Butterfly fauna in West Khentej and biogeography ............................................87 5.5 Differences of the butterfly assemblages between habitats .................................89 5.6 Biogeographic distribution and habitat selection.................................................91 5.7 Population dynamics of selected species .............................................................92 5.8 Mobility of adults of selected species..................................................................93 5.9 Adult population size of Lycaena virgaureae......................................................94 5.10 Area effect ...........................................................................................................95 5.11 Seasonality ..........................................................................................................96 5.12 Conservation status of Palearctic species..........................................................101 SUMMARY.......................................................................................................................102 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................105 REFERENCES..................................................................................................................106 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................123 LIST OF TABLES..............................................................................................................125 APPENDIX.......................................................................................................................126 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank especially my supervisor Prof. Dr. Mühlenberg for the opportunity to do my PhD at the Centre for Nature Conservation of George-August University of Göttingen. Also great thanks for his kind encouragement, support during these four years, and precious comments at all stages of this thesis. I extend my gratitude to Prof.Dr. M. Schaefer for kindly accepting to be the second examiner of this thesis. This study was granted by DFG (German Research Foundation), within the Graduating Colleague Programme 'Biodiversity'. I am grateful for their support. The Mongolian Academy of Sciences and National University of Mongolia gave me an opportunity to follow a PhD program. I'm grateful for the kind support of Dr. T. Galbaatar, the Vice President of the Mongolian Academy of Science. The Centre for Nature Conservation of George-August University of Göttingen, Germany and National University of Mongolia provided field facilities. László Peregovits, László Ronkay, Z. Balint, and Ch. Dulamsuren provided help for identification of specimens. I would especially like to thank to my best friends Frank Wichmann and Lilly, who have been of great support during my stay in Germany, provided valuable encouragement and solved many problems. I would like to thank Dr. Heleen Fermon for comments in data evaluation. I thank all of my colleagues and my friends in Centre for Nature Conservation for their help and creating a very nice working atmosphere. Many thanks to Monika Deseniß, Andrea Lambertz and Elisabeth Opielka for being helpful. Especially I thank Dr. Jolanta Slowik, Mei-Ling Bai, A. Enkhmaa, Anne Kemmling, Tserendavaa, Moogii, Boris Sheftel, Irina Pocrovskaya, Dimitri, Jan Appelfelder, for superb helping our field work in West Khentej. I am grateful to D. Myagmarsuren, A. Enkhmaa, for helping in mark-release-recapture. I want to thank to Dr. Richard Noske for his comments about the structure of this thesis and correcting earlier drafts of the manuscript. I thank all field assistants in West Khentej. D. Myagmarsuren, Ulaanaa, Bayaraa, Myadagaa, Toemboe, Bataa and all members of their family provided valuable help in field station. I am thankful to all my family members, especially my parents and my husband for their encouragement, patience and support during these four years. 1 1. INTRODUCTION The butterflies are among the best known insects of the world and estimated 90% of the world's species have scientific names (Robbins, 1996). Although Robbins noted that there are about 17,500 species of true butterflies (plus skippers) known on earth, butterflies comprise only 10 per cent of the insect order Lepidoptera (New 1997b). Recent environment conditions of butterfly communities in Europe are overall affected by rapid economic development of the twentieth century. For example, the farming landscape has undergone profound changes with recent losses of many hedges that were planted over the past two hundred years (Pollard et al.,1995). In European conditions the main threats reported come from agricultural improvements which affect 90% of threatened species, building developments (affecting 83%),