BIODIVERSITAS ISSN: 1412-033X Volume 16, Number 2, October 2015 E-ISSN: 2085-4722 Pages: 196-204 DOI: 10.13057/biodiv/d160215 Diversity of butterflies in four different forest types in Mount Slamet, Central Java, Indonesia IMAM WIDHIONO Faculty of Biology, Jenderal Soedirman University. Jl. Dr. Soeparno No. 68, Purwokerto, Banyumas 53122, Central Java, Indonesia. Tel. +62-281- 638794, Fax: +62-281-631700, email: [email protected] Manuscript received: 26 May 2015. Revision accepted: 20 August 2015. Abstract. Widhiono I. 2015. Diversity of butterflies in four different forest types in Mount Slamet, Central Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 16: 196-204. The study was carried out in four different habitat types (secondary forest, plantation forest, agroforest, and tourist area) on the southern slope of Mount Slamet, Baturaden Forest, Central Java, Indonesia from July 2009 to August 2010. A total of 99 species belonging to eight families showed a dominance of Nymphalidae (30 species) followed by Pieridae (17 species), Lycaenidae (15 species), Papilionidae (13 species), Satyridae (11 species), Danaidae (6 species), Amathusidae (4 species), and Riodinidae (3 species). From the 99 butterflies species found on the southern slope of Mount Slamet, 32 species (30%) were specific to the forest, whereas 63 species (60.6%) were common to all habitats sampled, and the last 10 species (9.4%) were endemics species with one protected species (Troides helena). The present results was showed that butterflies diversity, abundance, and endemism is still relatively high, representing 18% of all butterfly species found in Java and supporting 71.4% endemic species found in Central Java. The plantation forest were contributed the highest diversity and abundance of butterfly species, whereas the agroforest showed the lowest diversity, abundance, and endemism. Among all habitats surveyed, the secondary forest represented the most suitable habitat for biodiversity conservation and maintenance of rare and endemic species. Keywords: Butterfly, Central Java, diversity, endemism, Mount Slamet INTRODUCTION connectivity among forest patches, which is important for the maintenance of butterfly diversity. Mount Slamet is the second largest volcanic mountain Java island is a suitable places hosts a diverse butterfly in Java, located in the western region of Central Java population (583 species, Yukawa 1984; and 629 species, Province, with an altitude of 3,432 m above sea level. A Whitten et al. 1997) with 46 endemic species (Matsumoto large area of Mount Slamet is covered by a variety of et al. 2015), most or all of which depend to some extent forests, including secondary, plantation, agroforests and upon closed forests (Bonebrake et al. 2010; Sodhi et al. tourist areas (SFC 1999). Ecologically, forests on Mount 2010; Vu et al. 2015). From a conservationist viewpoint, Slamet are divided into three types of forest, i.e.: lowland, patterns in the richness of geographical restricted or montane, and subalpine that has diverse vegetation endemic butterflies are of particular interest. The diversity (Sumarno and Girmansyah 2012). The forest areas on of butterfly communities has been studied in different Mount Slamet are managed by the State Forest habitat types in different part of Java, such as Gunung Management Agency (Perum Perhutani). From an Halimun National Park, West Java (Ubaidillah 1998), ecological viewpoint, forest areas on Mount Slamet is a Mount Tangkuban Perahu, West Java (Subahar et al. 2007), transition from tropical rainforests in western Java to Gunung Salak, West Java (Tabadepu et al. 2008), Gunung monsoon forests in eastern Java, which significantly impact Halimun-Salak National Park, West Java (Murwitaningsih on the conservation of biodiversity in Java. and Dharma 2014), and Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Secondary and plantation forests are usually Park, East Java (Suharto et al. 2005). However, few studies monocultures of exotic tree species, meaning that they have been performed on the diversity of butterfly provide poorer habitats than original forests for native communities on Mount Slamet. The study was examined butterfly species. Both secondary and plantation forests are the diversity, abundance, and endemism of butterfly on expected to play positive roles in biodiversity restoration Mount Slamet and to address the importance of secondary (Matsumoto et al. 2015), especially when reforestation and and plantation forests for butterfly conservation. natural regeneration are allowed. These secondary and plantation forests can be considered additional conservation areas, as they are in close proximity to natural forests that MATERIALS AND METHODS are known to house of a large population of butterflies. Secondary and plantation forests can also act as buffers and Study area connections between natural forests and other lands, like The study was conducted in Baturaden Forest, East agroforests and tourist areas. They may improve Banyumas Forest Management Unit on the southern slope WIDHIONO – Butterflies of Mount Slamet, Central Java 197 of Mount Slamet, Central Java, Indonesia. Geographically, Plantation forest (PF) this region lies between 70 18’23 72” S and 1090 14’ 06 51” PFs are dominated by resin plants (Agathis dammara); at 600-800 m above sea level. The total study area is 267.5 other tree species are used for secondary products such as ha, and the forest types are mainly classified as secondary firewood, animal forage, site amelioration, and fodder. forest (SF, 50 ha), plantation forest (PF, 50 ha), agroforest Some are planted as border trees, including Leucaena (AF, 50 ha), and tourist area (AF, 117.5 ha) (Figure 1). leucocephala, L. glauca, Calliandra californica, and Acacia villosa. Other trees were planted to increase the Description of the study site heterogeneity of the forest, such as Schima noronhoe, Secondary forest (SF) Pterospermum javanicum, Magnolia blumei, Tarenna Vegetation in SFs are tropical, rainforest-type incerta, Antidesma bunius, Macadamia ternifolia, vegetation that consists of 19-20 tree species, such as Swietenia spp., Michelia montana, Mesua ferrea, Machilus Palaquium rostratum, Turpinia sphaerocarpa, rimosa, Cinnamomum burmanii, and Santalum album. Xanthophyllum excelsum, Terminalia catappa, Tarenna Agroforest (AF) incerta, Sterculia campanulata, Spathodea campanulata, AFs were established as soon as the land was clear-cut Semecarpus heterophyllus, Planchonia valida, Macaranga and the forest management was performed by Perhutani rhizinoides, Litsea angulata, Hernandia peltata, Helicia (State Forest Company/SFC), adopting the Taungya system javanica, Gluta renghas, Ficus variegata, F. benjamina, from Myanmar and involving local people (Whitten et al. Fagraea crenulata, Euodia roxburghiana, Erythrina 1997). Each family of forest farmers received 2 ha of forest variegata, Elaeocarpus glaber, Dipterocarpus gracilis, land for a duration 3-5 years. On this land, farmers were to Dendrocnide sinuata, Artocarpus elastica, Antidesma plant the main tree species (A. dammara) and food plants, tetrandum, and Aglaia elliptica. primarily dry land rice, corn, and certain vegetables. Figure 1. Location of Baturaden Forest, southern slope of Mount Slamet, indicating the sampling sites. 198 BIODIVERSITAS 16 (2): 196-204, October 2015 Tourist area (TA) common species in a community or an area with the In addition to forest management techniques that SFC following formula: Ds = Σsi=1 [ni (ni-1)]/[N (N-1)], where created, tourist or recreational areas to increase the quality ni is the population density of the ith species, and N is the of life and prosperity of local people were created. total population density of all component species in each Originally, TAs functioned as campgrounds, but at present, site. Comparisons of butterfly species composition between more than 50% of all TAs consist of open gardens with different forest habitats was estimated using single linkage white exotic plant species. cluster analysis based on Bray-Curtis similarity. Biodiversity Pro version 2 (McAleece et al. 1997) was used Climatology for data analysis. The study site receives an annual rainfall of To classify the status of species, the rare species, as approximately 4500 mm3, representing one of the highest defined in this study, are those species represented by precipitation areas in Indonesia. The long rainy season with fewer than 10 individuals, while the endemic species precipitation of more than 100 mm3/month ranges from defined as species which is only found in Java and nowhere October to May/June. The very short dry season with else in the world. precipitation of less than 60 mm3/month ranges from July to September. Day light temperatures range from 20 to 28°C. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Sampling procedure The butterfly community at Mount Slamet Field surveying of butterfly was conducted from July A total of 99 butterfly species were recorded at the 2009 to August 2010, following the Modified Pollard Walk study site: the southern slope of Mount Slamet (Table 1). Method with kite netting in four distinct habitats of Mount The species recorded were obtained from July 2009 to Slamet. Five permanent lines of transects (PLTs) (~ 0.5 km August 2010. long and 5 m wide) were laid in the four habitat types. The butterfly species belong to eight families with a Butterflies were captured during sunny days at a constant dominance of Nymphalidae (30 species, 28.7%) followed speed in each transect from 8 am to 12 am local time for by Pieridae (17 species,