1* Abstract Kon Ka Kinh National Park belongs to Kon Tum Plateau and has high value of diversity in Vietnam Forestry. Since the first survey in 1999, the butterflies in Kon Ka Kinh is little known. We conducted the investigation to study their butterfly population and factors affect butterfly distribution in a mountainous forest. Pollard walk method with a hand-net method was used for observation. 323 species were recorded, including 235 species in this survey. There were three new records for Vietnam and three new records in Central Vietnam. Nymphalidae is the dominating family. Our result indicated the impact of seasons, water resource, elevation and forest type on butterfly diversity. Their diversity is higher in the rainy season, where above ground water resource is highly available. The diversity indexes also are higher at a lower elevation and disturbed forest area. 1 I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Background ..................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Aims, scope, research question ...................................................................... 5 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................... 6 2.1. Systematics. .................................................................................................... 6 2.2. Ecology and behaviors.................................................................................... 7 2.3. Butterflies as an indicator of environment ..................................................... 8 2.4. Factors influencing butterfly diversity ......................................................... 10 2.5. Butterfly conservation: ................................................................................. 12 III. MATERIAL AND METHODS .......................................................................... 14 3.1. Study area...................................................................................................... 14 3.2. Transect selection: ........................................................................................ 17 3.3. Data collection: ............................................................................................. 18 3.4. Data analysis ................................................................................................. 19 IV. RESULTS ............................................................................................................ 21 4.1. Butterflies in Kon Ka Kinh National Park ................................................... 21 4.1.1. The butterfly fauna................................................................................. 21 4.1.2. Ecological complexes of tropical butterflies in Kon Ka Kinh N.P. ..... 23 4.1.3. Kon Ka Kinh butterfly in conservation ................................................. 24 4.1.4. New distribution records: ...................................................................... 25 4.1.5. Biogeographical features ....................................................................... 25 4.2. Butterfly indexes in Kon Ka Kinh National Park ........................................ 26 4.3. Factors influence to butterfly population distribution ................................. 28 V. DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................... 33 5.1. Butterfly fauna in Kon Ka Kinh National Park............................................ 33 5.2. Butterflies diversity along the transect ......................................................... 35 5.3. Factors impact to butterfly diversity: ........................................................... 36 VI. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 38 VII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT ..................................................................................... 40 VIII. APPENDIX ................................................................................................... 41 IX. REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 53 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1:Kon Ka Kinh national park map ................................................................................ 15 Figure 2: Average Monthly Temperature and Rainfall............................................................. 16 Figure 3: Percentage of butterfly species in each family recorded in Kon Ka Kinh N.P. (with and without consideration of species abundance) and entirely in Vietnam .................... 22 Figure 4: Taxonomical compositions of butterflies in Kon Ka Kinh N.P. ............................... 23 Figure 5: Percentage of common and forest butterfly species recorded ................................... 24 Figure 6: Correspondence analysis ........................................................................................... 29 Figure 7: Butterfly rarefaction curve for seasons ..................................................................... 30 Figure 8: Butterfly rarefaction curve based on water condition ............................................... 31 Figure 9: Rarefaction curves by forest types and altitude factors ............................................. 31 LIST OF TABLE Table 1: List of endemic species in Kon Ka Kinh National Park ............................................. 26 Table 2: Butterfly diversity indices .......................................................................................... 28 Table 3: Diversity permutation test .......................................................................................... 28 I. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background Among invertebrate conservation group, the butterflies are among one of the most popular focal groups. They are well known as indicators of tropical forest ecosystems and their ecological condition. (Oostermeijer & Van Swaay, 1998). Butterflies are a good group of insects for studying the effects of human activity. Under pressure from population growth, the forest area is destroying to increase the fragmentation and biodiversity loss. A butterfly is a sensitive group with the changing of the environment (Mecenero, 2015). In many representatives of this group, the specific characteristics of coloration, wing pattern, and genital morphology may demonstrate biogeographical information and provide useful parameters for studying the geographic variability of species. Butterflies represent a suitable object for solving the problems related to the specific features of geographic, landscape, seasonal, and climatic distribution of species (A. Monastyrskii, 2007b). Among many reasons that could be named to justify the use of this group as an object for solving the above problems, the following are most important: (1) The butterfly taxonomy is well-developed (De Jong, Vane-Wright, & Ackery, 1996; Rod & Ken, 1988); (2) They are present in practically all the known tropical habitats of Vietnam (A. Monastyrskii & Holloway, 2013; A. L. Monastyrskii & Devyatkin, 2015); (3) Their life cycle is often associated with specific host plants and some other groups of insects and vertebrate animals. The changes in the vegetation are always accompanied by the changes in the taxonomic composition of primary consumers, including butterflies (Dover, 1996; Ehrlich & Raven, 1964); (4) Butterflies can be easily observed and counted in nature, and can therefore be used for demonstrating seasonal changes in abundance (Pollard, 1975; Pyle, Hughes, & Institute, 1992); (5) The boundaries of distribution ranges of butterflies can be vertified with a satisfactory degree of precision based on museum collections and illustrated 1 guides; (6) In many representatives of this group, the specific traits of coloration, wing pattern, and genital morphology provide the biogeographical information and provide convenient parameters for studying the geographic variability of species (Benedick et al., 2007; Dover, 1996; Gilbert & Singer, 1975) During the last twenty years, butterflies have been successfully utilized by many national and international programs for conservation activity as a perfect tool supplementing the main methodology for the assessment of natural resources(Bonebrake, Ponisio, Boggs, & Ehrlich, 2010; T. New, Pyle, Thomas, Thomas, & Hammond, 1995; T. R. New, 1997). Practically nearly all conservation projects implemented in Vietnam from 1993 have included butterfly study into biodiversity research programs. These faunistic surveys showed a high level of butterfly diversity and character of species distributions (A. Monastyrskii, 2007a; A. L. Monastyrskii & Devyatkin, 2015). There were discovered a high number of species which have been described as new to science. Many of these new species are endemics to Vietnam and were found very locally (A. L. D. Monastyrskii, Alexey, 2000, 2012). The majority of endemic species are characterized by restricted ranges and are located in some topographically isolated mountain areas including mountain massifs of Vietnamese central highlands: Central Truong Son Range; Kon Tum Plateau, and for example, Kon Ka Kinh and Ngoc Linh national parks. Kon Ka Kinh is an isolated mountain massif located in Gia Lai Province of Kon Tum Plateau. It is situated within Endemic Bird Area and supports six restricted-range bird species(Le, 2000). Kon Ka Kinh is also a globally important site for the