Study of butterfly diversity in agronomy field, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

Abstract

Butterflies are bright colored scaly winged insects of order Lepidoptera and one of the important species for conservation of invertebrates. A short-term survey was conducted for a period of one year within the agronomy field of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) campus in order to study the diversity of butterflies and their distribution among respective families, subfamilies and genera. During the course of survey, a total number of 48 species of butterflies belonging to 5 families, 13 sub families and 34 genera are recorded. It was observed that family Nymphalidae is the most dominating family in the study area representing 6 subfamilies, 15 genera and 21 species. Lowest number of butterflies are found in Hesperiidae family. Between these according to IUCN Stripped albatros, Grey pansy, Danaid eggfly, yalm fly are under very rare category. Rare species are angled castor, common sergent, common sailor.