Diversity and habitat affinities of butterfly families in Central Guyana, South America

Abstract

Our aim was to document butterfly diversity, assemblage structure and biogeographic distribution in the Iwokrama Forest Reserve and North Rupununi District, Guyana. Butterflies were collected by hand netting along line transects in three habitat types-forest, forest-savanna ecotone and savanna. Six butterfly families were recorded, Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae, Lycaenidae, Riodinidae, and Hesperiidae. Butterfly family counts were influenced by the size of the natural butterfly populations. Specific families showed preferences for various habitat types such that the Riodinidae were mostly found in forests, Pieridae in forest-savanna ecotones, and Hesperiidae in savannas. However, the Nymphalidae, Lycaenidae and Papilionidae showed no such patterns, as they exhibited similar richness in all habitats. The presence and absence of all butterfly families seemed to be linked to the distribution of larval food plants and adult food flower in the different habitats, i.e., resource availability.