Butterfly fauna (Lepidoptera: rhopalocera) of the Sungai Sedim Forest Reserve in Kedah, Malaysia

Sulaiman, Norela and Md Said, Saidah and Abdullah, Maimon and Mohamed, Ahmad Adnan (2009) Butterfly fauna (Lepidoptera: rhopalocera) of the Sungai Sedim Forest Reserve in Kedah, Malaysia. [Journal / Magazine]

PDF JWP 2009-2010 VOL 26_5.pdf Restricted to Repository staff only Download (3MB)

Abstract

Samplings of butterflies in the vicinity of Sungai Sedim Forest Reserve in Kedah, Malaysia were conducted from 17th to 19th August and from 7th to 9th December 2007. The objective of the study is to determine the diversity and abundance of butterfly species in the study area. Samples were manually collected using the butterfly sweeping net and food-baited traps set from 0900-1700 hours. A total of 171 individuals representing 59 species in 12 subfamilies and 5 families were collected during six days of sampling. Nymphalidae is the most dominant family recorded here with a total catch of 32 species, followed by Pieridae (13 species), Lycaenidae (9 species), papilionidae (4 species), and Hesperiidae (2 species). Five species are categorized as common species, namely Melanitis leda ledq (Linnaeus), Mycalesis horsfeldi mucianis (Fruhstorfer), Mycalesis mineus macromalayana (Fruhstorfer), Elymnias hypermnesta tinctoria (Moore) and Eurema sari sodalist (Moore), while 33 species are categorized as rare species and two species as abundant, namely Elymnias hlpermnesta tinctoria (Moorc) and. Melanitis leda leda (Linnaeus). The species Troides amphrysus ruficollis (Butler) (Papilionidae: Papilioninae) is listed as a protected species under the wildlife Protection Act 1972. The shannon species diversity index (H)) is highest on the sixth day of sampling (H> : 2.87), while there are also significant differences (p< 0.05) between the results of the sixth day sampling and those of other days. The highest value of shannon Evenness index (E>) is also on the sixth day of sampling (E> : 0.97). The results show that the diversity of butterflies in this study site is very high and the species are evenly distributed. Results were also compared with others areas in Peninsular Malaysia, Taiwan and other parts of the world.

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