ARTICLE Butterfly fauna (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea) in a heterogeneous area between two biodiversity hotspots in Minas Gerais, Brazil Déborah Soldati¹³; Fernando Amaral da Silveira¹⁴ & André Roberto Melo Silva² ¹ Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Instituto de Ciências Biológicas (ICB), Departamento de Zoologia, Laboratório de Sistemática de Insetos. Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil. ² Centro Universitário UNA, Faculdade de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde. Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil. ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3113-5840. E-mail: [email protected] ³ ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9546-2376. E-mail: [email protected] (corresponding author). ⁴ ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2408-2656. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. This paper investigates the butterfly fauna of the ‘Serra do Rola-Moça’ State Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil. We eval- uate i) the seasonal variation of species richness and composition; and ii) the variation in composition of the local butterfly assemblage among three sampling sites and between the dry and rainy seasons. Sampling was carried out monthly between November 2012 and October 2013, using entomological nets. After a total sampling effort of 504 net hours, 311 species were recorded. One of them is endangered in Brazil, and eight are probable new species. Furthermore, two species were new records for the region and eight considered endemic of the Cerrado domain. There was no significant difference in species richness between the dry and the rainy seasons, however the species composition varies significantly among sampling sites. Due to its special, heterogeneous environment, which is home to a rich butterfly fauna, its preservation is important for the conservation of the regional butterfly fauna. Key-Words. Actinote quadra; Atlantic Rainforest; Butterfly richness; Cerrado; New records. INTRODUCTION focused on the butterfly fauna of non-urban fragments of Atlantic Rainforest in Minas Gerais The Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado do- (Brown Jr. & Mielke, 1968; Brown Jr. & Freitas, 2000; mains present variable landscape structure Ebert, 1969; Silva et al., 2010), although a signif- (Tabarelli et al., 2005; Emery et al., 2006), being icative portion of the Brazilian butterfly diversity considered threatened and important biodiversi- occurs in this domain (Iserhard et al., 2018). ty hotspots (Mittermeier et al., 2004). The hetero- Many studies demonstrate that the number geneous vegetation in those floristic domains is of active butterfly species decreases during the habitat for a diverse fauna of butterflies (Emery dry season, mainly due to scarcity of larval food et al., 2006). Although high butterfly species rich- (Brown Jr. & Freitas, 2000). In the rainy season, ness has been recorded in different areas of the when more species are active, adult females eas- Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado, as well as in ily find new, soft, nutrient-reach leaves to feed transition areas between those domains, invento- the caterpillars (Iserhard et al., 2013). However, ries in the various vegetation types in those eco- environmental characteristics, such as vegetation systems still need to be conducted (Carneiro et al., type, are more relevant than the temporal varia- 2008). tion (dry and rainy seasons) in organizing species The butterfly fauna of the Brazilian Cerrado is composition for Hesperiidae butterfly assemblag- still poorly known, even in southern and south- es (Carneiro et al., 2014) and can also be relevant eastern Brazil, where many faunistic inventories for the species composition of the other butterfly have been done (Carneiro et al., 2008). families. Some important butterfly inventories were The study of species diversity in different done in the Cerrado in the Federal District and vegetation types is critical to planning and de- in the state of Minas Gerais (Brown Jr. & Mielke, veloping environmental protection and insect 1967a, 1967b, 1968; Emery et al., 2006; Mielke conservation actions (Lewinsohn et al., 2005), and et al., 2008; Motta, 2002). Few inventories were faunistic inventories are indispensable tools for Pap. Avulsos Zool., 2019; v.59: e20195902 ISSN On-Line: 1807-0205 http://doi.org/10.11606/1807-0205/2019.59.02 ISSN Printed: 0031-1049 http://www.revistas.usp.br/paz ISNI: 0000-0004-0384-1825 http://www.scielo.br/paz Edited by: Marcelo Duarte Received: 16/03/2018 Accepted: 25/10/2018 Published: 07/01/2019 Pap. Avulsos Zool., 2019; v.59: e20195902 Soldati, D., et al.: Butterflies of two hotspots in Minas Gerais 2/9 recording and describing the local biodiversity, as well tween April and September, and a rainy season between as for management and protection of remnants of the October and March, with an average total rainfall of Cerrado, of the Atlantic Rainforest and of the transition 850 mm (Drummond & Martins, 2007). Surrounding the areas between them. park, there are mines and urban areas that directly affect Here, the butterfly fauna of a heterogeneous area the park’s environment (Drummond & Martins, 2007). in the border of the Cerrado and the Atlantic Rainforest domains, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, is inven- toried and its species richness and composition in differ- Sampling and identification ent vegetation types, in the dry and rainy seasons, are analyzed. Sampling was conducted between November 2012 and October 2013, in twelve transects, two in each of six different vegetational types: rocky field, Cerrado sensu MATERIAL AND METHODS strictu (savanna) and natural grassland (physiognomies of the Cerrado); riparian forests and seasonal semi-de- Study area ciduous forest (Atlantic Rainforest); and Forest-Cerrado transition areas. The twelve transects are 1 km to 1.5 km The study was conducted in the ‘Serra do Rola-Moça’ away from each other and were chosen considering their State Park (PESRM) (20°03’01”S, 44°00’20”W), located in accessibility and vegetation types. Due to low tempera- the municipalities of Belo Horizonte, Brumadinho, Ibirité tures and rain, the sampling effort was reduced in March. and Nova Lima in the state of Minas Gerais (Fig. 1). The Entomological nets were used to capture adult but- park is in the region known as Quadrilátero Ferrífero terflies, following the standard procedures established by (‘Iron Quadrangle’) in the southern Espinhaço Range, and Iserhard (2011). Samples were carried out twice a month, is composed of different vegetation types of the Atlantic with three collectors sampling for 3.5 hours along each Rainforest domain (riparian and seasonal semi-decid- of two transects each day, between 09:00 and 16:30. uous forest) and of the Cerrado domain (cerrado sensu The butterflies were sacrificed by thorax compres- strictu [savanna], natural grasslands and rocky fields) sion and stored in entomological envelopes for pos- (Drummond & Martins, 2007). terior identification. The following information was re- The park is a mountainous area with altitudes raging corded for each captured butterfly: date, time, local of between 1,000 m and 1,430 m (Drummond & Martins, collection, and collector. The specimens collected were 2007), under a tropical climate, with a dry season be- identified and deposited in the Centro de Coleções Figure 1. Location of the study site, the ‘Serra do Rola-Moça’ State Park (PESRM), in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Soldati, D., et al.: Butterflies of two hotspots in Minas Gerais Pap. Avulsos Zool., 2019; v.59: e20195902 3/9 Taxonômicas of the Universidade Federal de Minas lar species (Mielke & Casagrande, 1997) that were rarely Gerais (CCT-UFMG). sampled. Specimen identification was accomplished with In the rainy season (October to March), 230 species aid of the taxonomic literature (Brown Jr., 1992; Penz & were recorded, of which, 102 were sampled only in that Devries, 2002; Willmott, 2003; Uehara-Prado et al., 2004; season. In the dry season (April to September), 209 spe- D’Abrera, 2005; Garwood et al., 2009; Santos et al., 2011), cies were recorded, 81 of them unique to that season. as well as of the illustrated list of South American butter- A total of 128 species were sampled in both seasons. flies (Warren et al., 2017). Specimens that could not be Sample coverage of species richness, in each season, identified by the authors were taken for identification in reached almost 70% and indicates that more species the Laboratory of Studies of Neotropical Lepidoptera, of could have been sampled (Figs. 2, 3). The sampling cov- the Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) (Hesperiidae), and Laboratory of Ecology and Systematics of Butterflies of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) (Riodinidae, Satyrinae and Ithomiinae [Nymphalidae]). The classification employed here were those of Lamas (2004); Wahlberg et al. (2009); for Hesperiidae, Warren et al. (2008, 2009); and for Riodinidae, Seraphim et al. (2018). Data analysis The Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was used to compare the species richness of the dry and rainy sea- sons, with richness being the response and seasons the explanatory variables. GLM was used to compare the Figure 2. Sample coverage of species richness in rainy season, in the ‘Serra do species richness (response variable) of the sampling sites Rola-Moça’ State Park, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. (explanatory variable). All GLM were submitted to residu- al analyses to evaluate adequacy of the error distribution (Crawley, 2013). Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analyses employing the Jaccard similarity index were employed to compare the species composition be- tween