doi:10.12741/ebrasilis.v13.e905 e-ISSN 1983-0572 Publication of the project Entomologistas do Brasil www.ebras.bio.br Creative Commons Licence v4.0 (CC-BY) Copyright © Author(s) Article Full Open Access Taxonomy and Systematic Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) from a Fragment of Atlantic Forest in Southern Bahia, Brazil Gabriel Vila-Verde1,2 & Márlon Paluch2 1. Centro de Formação em Ciências Ambientais, Campus Sosígenes Costa, Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia, Porto Seguro, BA, Brazil. 2. Laboratório de Sistemática e Conservação de Insetos, Setor de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia, Cruz das Almas, BA, Brazil. EntomoBrasilis 13: e905 (2020) Edited by: Abstract. The Atlantic Forest of southern Bahia comprises a zone of high levels of biodiversity and William Costa Rodrigues endemism of plants, vertebrates and insects. However, there are still several gaps on the knowledge of the local Lepidoptera diversity. The objective of this study was to conduct an inventory of butterflies Article History: in a fragment of the Atlantic Forest in Porto Seguro, Bahia, Brazil to provide information on species Received: 24.iv.2020 richness. Butterflies were sampled with insect net from March 2018 to March 2019, and November Accepted: 31.vii.2020 2019 to February 2020, totaling 150 h of sampling effort. Additionally, we used Van Someren-Rydon Published: 23.viii.2020 traps for collecting frugivorous butterflies in September 2018 and February 2019 representing 1,080 Corresponding author: trap-hours. A total of 228 butterfly species were recorded. Hesperiidae (86 spp.) and Nymphalidae (77 spp.) were the most representative families, followed by Riodinidae (32 spp.), Lycaenidae (21 Gabriel Vila-Verde spp.), Pieridae (10 spp.) and Papilionidae (2 spp.). The local butterfly fauna is composed of species [email protected] found in open or disturbed forest edges, and secondary vegetation. Most of the sampled species is Funding agencies: broadly distributed in Brazil. Morpho menelaus coeruleus (Perry, 1810) (Nymphalidae), Jemadia hospita hephaestos (Plötz, 1879) (Hesperiidae) and several species of Lycaenidae and Riodinidae represents a Without funding declared new record for northeastern Brazil. Keywords: Atlantic Forest Central Biodiversity Corridor; Conservation; Inventory; Northeastern Brazil; Tabuleiro Forest. he Atlantic Forest is a very diversified and complex KESSELRING & EBERT 1982; PALUCH et al. 2011; MELO et al. 2019). In biome that occupied in the past an area of the Atlantic Forest in Bahia the inventories were drawn up approximately 150 million hectares of the Brazilian east only in the Recôncavo region and north coast. Another study coast. Currently the forest fragments are dispersed in 17 was conducted with frugivorous butterfly species in southern states, and cover approximately 32 million hectares (RIBEIRO Bahia (VASCONCELOS et al. 2009; ZACCA et al. 2011; NEVES & PALUCH et al. 2009; REZENDE et al. 2018; SOS MATA ATLÂNTICA 2019). 2016; PALUCH et al. 2016). The Atlantic Forest Central Biodiversity Corridor located in southern Bahia and the whole state of Espírito Santo is In the Caatinga, the first inventory of butterflies was compiled characterized by different types of phytophysiognomies and just over a decade ago (NOBRE et al. 2008), followed by other a rich diversity of birds and mammalians species (BRASIL 2006; studies with different types of phytophysiognomies (KERPEL et THOMAS et al. 1998). The restricted area between the north of al. 2014; LIMA & ZACCA 2014; RAFAEL et al. 2017; ZACCA & BRAVO Espírito Santo and southern Bahia is known as Hileia Baiana 2012). Even though a considerable effort was expended in (Tabuleiro Forest), a region considered an endemism zone field surveys, the knowledge about butterfly richness in the and the refuge for several species of threatened butterflies, Caatinga is still in its initial stages (KERPEL et al. 2014; RAFAEL for example, Heraclides himeros baia (Rothschild & Jordan, et al. 2017). Recently inventories were drawn up in the 1906) (Papilionidae), Perrhybris pamela flava(Oberthür, 1896) northeastern Savanna and Amazon, covering the transition (Pieridae) and Melinaea mnasias thera C. Felder & R. Felder, area between the two biomes (MARTINS et al. 2017; PEREIRA et 1865 (Nymphalidae) (FREITAS & MARINI-FILHO 2011). al. 2018). In the Northeast, Sphingidae was the most represented family Due to the limited data available about Lepidoptera in the of Lepidoptera sampled in field inventories (in Savanna, Bahian Atlantic Forest new studies are necessary regarding Caatinga and Atlantic Forest biomes) conducted in all the the biology, the ecology and the elaboration of species states of the region, except Sergipe (DARRAULT & SCHLINDWEIN lists to orientate conservationist actions. These actions are 2002; DUARTE-JÚNIOR & SCHLINDWEIN 2005a, 2005b, 2008; GUSMÃO necessary because, although the areas in southern Bahia are & CREÃO-DUARTE 2004; MIELKE & HAXAIRE 2013; RAFAEL et al. 2017; the most preserved, economic activities such as tourism and VILA-VERDE & PALUCH 2019). silviculture threaten the local biodiversity (FREITAS & MARINI- FILHO 2011). A pioneer study with Lepidoptera was carried out in the northeastern Atlantic Forest in the middle of the XX century The aim of the present study was to increase the knowledge (CARDOSO 1949), and the fauna of butterflies in the north of the about butterflies (Papilionoidea) in the Northeast by providing San Francisco river is best known because of the inventories a list of species and information about their geographic compiled in Alagoas, Pernambuco and Paraíba (CARDOSO 1949; distribution and richness in the Atlantic Forest. www.entomobrasilis.org Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) from a Fragment of Atlantic… Vila-Verde & Paluch (2020) MATERIAL AND METHODS richest families were Hesperiidae with 86 species (37.7%) and Nymphalidae with 77 species (33.8%) corresponding to Study Area. Campus Sosígenes Costa (CSC) (16°25’22” S the second largest richness followed by Riodinidae (32 spp., 39°08’11” O - PINTO et al. 2019) in Universidade Federal do Sul 14%), Lycaenidae (21 spp., 9.2%), Pieridae (10 spp., 4.4%) da Bahia, located in the municipality of Porto Seguro, is part of and Papilionidae (2 sp., 0.9%) (Table 1). The Hedylidae family the Atlantic Forest Central Biodiversity Corridor in southern which comprises an uncommon neotropical butterfly group Bahia (BRASIL 2006). The climate is tropical humid without was not collected because of the nocturnal habits of the few defined dry season, and the annual average temperature species known (KAWAHARA et al. 2018). peaks above de 24 ºC (ALVARES et al. 2013). In comparison with the number of species registered by other The rainfall is spread evenly throughout the year and its inventories in the Atlantic Forest in the Southeast region of annual average value is 1,624 mm (CLIMATE-DATA. ORG 2019). Brazil, the total richness in the CSC could be considered low The CSC is located at an altitude of 80 m above sea level and (BROWN-JR 1992; BROWN-JR & FREITAS 2000; FRANCINI et al. 2011; comprises a territorial area of 23 ha, from which 2.66 ha FREITAS et al. 2016). On the other side, the total richness contain three fragments of Atlantic Forest with physiognomy found in the CSC area is greater than those registered in typical of the Dense Ombrophylous Forest (lowland), also the northeastern Atlantic Forest, as MAC, Maceió, AL (218 classified as Tabuleiro Forest (PINTO et al. 2019). The authors spp.), PMP, Salvador, BA (70 spp.), SJ, Santa Teresinha, BA also observed that the forest has a history of intense (140 spp.) and PEJVS, Caruaru, PE (197 spp.) (CARDOSO 1949; anthropized area, although the floristic composition was VASCONCELOS et al. 2009; ZACCA et al. 2011; PALUCH et al. 2011). predominately herbaceous with more than 193 species of The number of species found are similar to recorded for plants, including native and exotic species. the MB, João Pessoa, PB (291 spp.), FLS, BA (260 spp.) and PDI, Recife, PE (273 spp.) (KESSELRING & EBERT 1982; PALUCH et al. Sampling and Taxonomic Classification. Sampling was 2016; MELO et al. 2019). However, the forested area covers done with entomological net by one person walking along the a very small proportion of the 2.66 ha in the CSC, and the trails in a non-systematized way. Fieldwork was conducted richness of species registered is higher than in the remaining from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Butterflies were sampled between fragments of the Atlantic Forest in Paraíba (KESSELRING & EBERT March 2018 to March 2019, totaling 26 field trips during 1982), Pernambuco (PALUCH et al. 2011; MELO et al. 2019) and every month. Additional sampling was conducted between Bahia (VASCONCELOS et al. 2009; ZACCA et al. 2011; PALUCH et al. November 2019 to February 2020, including 11 days more 2016) (Table 2). with a total sampling effort of approximately 150 hours. Three Van Someren-Rydon (VSR) type butterfly bait traps were The richness of Nymphalidae (S=77) was slightly lower installed at 1.5 m above ground. The traps were baited with than Hesperiidae (S=86), but had nearly equal estimated a fermented mixture of banana and sugar cane juice placed species richness values than those observed in other in forest gaps. The traps were active during 15 consecutive inventories compiled in the Atlantic Forest of the Northeast days, between September 2018 and February 2019, and (VASCONCELOS et al. 2009; ZACCA et al. 2011; PALUCH et al. 2011, were checked every 48 hours. A 12 h daily data collection 2016), although Hesperiidae was also registered with great was considered, period during which the frugivorous richness of species in the forest of Pernambuco (MELO et al. species can be found active in the spring and summer in the 2019). Common species of Nymphalidae and Hesperiidae northeast region of Brazil. Thus, the total sampling effort with large geographic distribution were not recorded in CSC, was of 1,088 trap-hours. All the collected material was stored as for example Anartia amathea Linnaeus, 1758 and Urbanus in an entomological envelope or pinned.