Butterfly diversity in selected land use types of Chebera Churchura national park and its surroundings, South-western Ethiopia: Baseline data for planning conservation strategy

Abstract

Butterflies are grouped in order Lepidoptera together with moths and they are the most studied and well-known insects. Butterflies are respectable indicators of environmental impacts on biodiversity in different land use. Butterfly biodiversity in three selected land-use types with aim of documenting the diversity of butterflies and study the effect of land use on the diversity of butterflies was studied in and around Chebera Churchura National park, in southern nations' nationalities and people’s region, southwestern Ethiopia. The study was conducted for six months from January 2020 to June 2020. Three selected land-use types: riverine forest, wooded grassland, and Moosic habitats were studied. A sweeping net was used to collect butterflies and only adult species were collected, identified, and stored in the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute. Results have shown a total of 79 butterfly species with 3801 individuals were recorded in the three selected habitats of Chebera Churchura National Park. The abundance of butterflies indicates that family Nymphalidae was recorded with the highest abundance followed by Family Pieridae and family Papilionidae. Family Lycaenidae and Hespariidae were recorded with the lowest abundance. Species richness, composition, and abundance were variable in the different land-use types. The riverine forest was documented the highest with 54 species and 1611 individuals followed by wooded grasslands with 43 species and 1531individuals and Moosic with 23 species and 659 individuals. Diversity indices of butterfly species of the three land-use types have been studied. The result shows that the Species richness index is highest in the riverine forest followed by wooded grassland and the least diverse was the Moosic habitat. The diversity of butterflies captured varied with the month of sampling. The riverine forest was recorded with the highest abundance in January and the least abundant in June. Wooded grassland was recorded with the highest abundance in January the lowest abundance in March and mosaic habitat was recorded with the highest abundance in January and the lowest abundance in May. Jaccard’s index of similarity was observed among three habitats and the highest similarity was found between riverine forest and wooded grassland. The study area was recorded with the highest diversity of butterflies.