PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online OPEN ACCESS 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 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) Short Communication Diversity of butterflies of the Shettihalli Wildlife Sanctuary, Shivamogga District, Karnataka, India M.N. Harisha, Harish Prakash, B.B. Hoset & Vijaya Kumara 26 August 2019 | Vol. 11 | No. 10 | Pages: 14349–14357 DOI: 10.11609/jot.4543.11.10.14349-14357 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. Partner Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2019 | 11(10): 14349–14357 Diversity of butterflies of the Shettihalli Wildlife Sanctuary, Shivamogga District, Karnataka, India 1 2 3 4 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) M.N. Harisha , Harish Prakash , B.B. Hoset & Vijaya Kumara Communication Short ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 1–4 Department of Post Graduate Studies and Research in Wildlife and Management, Kuvempu University, PLATINUM Jnana Sahyadri, Shankaraghata, Shivamogga, Karnataka 577451, India 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], OPEN ACCESS 4 [email protected] Abstract: A study was conducted on the diversity of buterfies by (Mathew & Rahamathulla 1993), 124 species from using the pollard walk method in the tropical dry deciduous habitats Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary (Sudheendrakumar of Shethalli Wildlife Sanctuary, Shivamogga District, Karnataka, from February 2010 to January 2011. A total of 151 species of buterfies et al. 2000), 139 species from Kudremukh Natonal Park belonging to 99 genera and fve families was recorded. The family (Radhakrishnan 2007), 74 species from Peechi-Vazhani Nymphalidae was the most dominant with the highest number of species (52 species; 35%), followed by Lycaenidae (33 species; Wildlife Sanctuary (Mathew et al. 2005), 53 species 22%), Hesperiidae (25 species; 17%), Pieridae (24 species; 16%), and from Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary (Mathew et al. 2007), Papilionidae (15 species: 10%). The study also revealed 24 species 115 species from Gudavi Bird Sanctuary (Dayanand of buterfies which are protected under various schedules of Indian Wildlife Protecton Act, 1972, and 13 species as being endemic to the 2014), and 85 species from the montane forests of Western Ghats, peninsular India and Sri Lanka. Eravikulam Natonal Park (Sreekumar et al. 2018); and non-protected areas: 75 species from Siruvani Reserve Keywords: Diversity, endemicity, southern Western Ghats. Forests (Arun 2003), 282 species from the Kerala part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (Mathew 2016), and 172 species from Dakshina Kannada District (Naik & Mustak The Western Ghats is a prominent globally recognized 2016). The present study was conducted to examine the biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al. 2000; Gunawardene et status, endemicity, and abundance of buterfies from al. 2007), which covers about 60% of the forest area of Shethalli Wildlife Sanctuary, Shivamogga, Karnataka. Karnataka and one among the 36 biodiversity hotspots of the World. Material and Methods There are a few reports available untl date on the Study area buterfies of the Western Ghats (e.g., Gaonkar 1996; The Shethalli Wildlife Sanctuary (SWS) located Kunte 2000, 2008; Kehimkar 2008; Padhye et al. 2012; between 13.88730N and 75.38790E occupies an area Kasambe 2018). Some examples of earlier documentaton about 395.6km2 (Fig. 1). It is spread over parts of three on buterfies from the Western Ghats protected areas taluks of Shivamogga District: Shivamogga, Hosanagara, include: 100 species from Silent Valley Natonal Park and Thirthahalli. The terrain in the sanctuary is plain DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4543.11.10.14349-14357 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D38555AE-3294-433F-B1AB-B0E3A293E5E9 Editor: George Mathew, (Ex) Emeritus Scientst, KFRI, Peechi, India. Date of publicaton: 26 August 2019 (online & print) Manuscript details: #4543 | Received 03 September 2018 | Final received 01 August 2019 | Finally accepted 07 August 2019 Citaton: Harisha. M.N., H. Prakash, B.B. Hoset & V. Kumara (2019). Diversity of buterfies of the Shethalli Wildlife Sanctuary, Shivamogga District, Karnataka, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(10): 14349–14357. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4543.11.10.14349-14357 Copyright: © Harisha et al. 2019. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: Karnataka Forest Department, Shivamogga. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: We are extremely grateful to all faculty members of the Department of Applied Zoology and Wildlife Management, for their support. We are grateful to the Shivamogga Forest Department for grantng permission to conduct the study in the Shethalli Wildlife Sanctuary and for their gracious hospitality during the study period. 14349 Buterfies of Shethalli Wildlife Sanctuary Harisha et al. to undulatng with a few pockets consistng of very very common (VC) 80–100%, common (C) 60–80%, steep terrains and hillocks. The temperature within the occasional (O) 40–60%, rare (R) 20–40% and very rare sanctuary varies from 15˚C to 39˚C and the average (VR) below 20% (Aneesh et al. 2013). rainfall varies around 2000mm dominated by the southwest monsoon during July to September. It covers Results and Discussion dry deciduous, moist deciduous and semi evergreen The study revealed the presence of 151 species of forests of the Western Ghats. The sanctuary is rich in buterfies, belonging to fve families. The checklists of both foral and faunal diversity. all the species observed with their status are given in Table 1. Family-wise distributon of buterfies species Sampling method showed that, Nymphalidae was the most dominant with Buterfy survey was carried out from February 2010 52 species (35% of total species), followed by Lycaenidae to January 2011 to record their status and abundance. with 33 species (22%), Hesperiidae with 25 species The line transect method developed by the Insttuton (17%), Pieridae with 24 species (16%), and Papilionidae of Terrestrial Ecology (Pollard 1979) was followed to with 15 species (10%). On the basis of the frequency of monitor the diversity. Buterfies were recorded by direct occurrence of each buterfy species’ abundance, we visual observaton along the three fxed transect routs, calculated that 68 (46%) species were common followed each of 2km long and 10m wide, passing through the by 35 (23%) rare, 30 (20%) very common, 13 (9%) diferent landscape elements like dry deciduous, semi occasional, and 3 (2%) very rare species (Fig. 2). evergreen and scrub forest and walked at a constant Thirteen taxa listed in SWS were found to be endemic pace for approximately one to one and half an hour. species of which six species are endemic to the Western The data collecton carried out in a bi-weekly random Ghats, viz.: Pachliopta pandiyana, Papilio dravidarum, survey in the whole study period. Observatons were Troides minos, Kallima horsfeldi, Idea malabarica, made between 07.30hr to 11.00hr, when buterfies are and Caltoris canaraica (Kunte 2008); fve species, viz.: most actve. Buterfies were identfed by using various Discophora lepida, Cirrochroa thais, Mycalesis patna, feld guides (Kunte 2000; Sharma & Radhakrishna 2005; Cethosia mahrata, and Pareronia ceylanica endemic to Kasambe 2018) and the nomenclature followed is as the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka (Kasambe 2018); and per Kasambe (2018). Buterfies observed in this study two species, viz.: Prioneris sita and Papilio polymnestor were categorized into fve categories on the basis of endemic to peninsular India and Sri Lanka (Kunte 2008; their abundance under diferent score classes such as: Kasambe 2018). Figure 1. Shethalli Wildlife Sanctuary. 14350 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2019 | 11(10): 14349–14357 Buterfies of Shethalli Wildlife Sanctuary Harisha et al. Table1. Checklist of buterfies along with their conservaton status in Shethalli Wildlife Sanctuary, Shivamogga, Karnataka. Common name Scientfc name Status WPA 1927 Family: Papilionidae 1 Crimson Rose Pachliopta hector Linnaeus, 1758 VC Sch. I 2 Common Rose Pachliopta aristolochiae Fabricius,