A Study on the Diversity of Butterfly Species in the Adjoining Natural Habitat of an Urbanized Locality of Sipajhar, Assam, India

Abstract

Butterfly is considered as a flagship fauna. These are phytophagous in nature and they also contribute to pollination. Butterflies are sensitive to environmental changes including the fast rise of industries, intense use of fertilizers and insecticides, climate change, nitrogen pollution, mono-cropping, forest fires, fragmentation, and habitat degradation, all of which make them vulnerable to extinction. Change in land use pattern may lead to landscape changes that can reflect into change in butterfly diversity and distribution which makes butterflies also the umbrella species. In the present study, a total of 21 species of butterflies belonging to 16 genera in 6 families were recorded from the adjoining natural habitat of an urbanized locality of Sipajhar, Assam, India and the most of the species belonged to the family Nymphalidae. In this investigation, it was found that the recorded butterflies preferred white, purple, red and yellow flowers. The study results showed that the colour preferences of feeding flower is yellow in most of the cases. The decline and abundance of butterflies in any ecosystem may be directly related to the types and availability of plants in that particular area. So, a healthy ecosystem must be maintained for conservation of this beautiful species.