IMPACTS OF LAND USE CHANGE ON FOREST BUTTERFLY COMMUNITIES IN THE WESTERN GHATS OF SOUTHERN INDIA

Abstract

We studied the role of plantation agriculture as a refuge lor the butterflies of deciduous forest habitat in the Western Ghats of southern India. Abundance, diversity and species composition of the butterflies of forest habitat were compared with those of adjoining lime plantations. Butterfly communities were studied using visual censusing techniques along eleven line transects in forest habitat and five line transects in plantation habitat. Observed butterfly densities were not significantly different in forest (478 ± 378) and plantation transects (401 ± 167). Observed species richness was higher in plantations (38 ± 5) compared to forest habitat (34 ± 8) but this difference was not statistically significant. However, ordination analysis revealed that species composition differed between the two types of habitat with forest specialists being replaced by edge and secondary growth species in plantations. Faunal similarity between plantation and forest transects was low, with only 33.7%. The study indicated that although butterfly abundance and species richness of plantations were comparable with those of forest, species composition varied significantly between the two types of habitat.