Butterfly Diversity across Saraswati-Ganga Plains of Hooghly, West Bengal

Abstract

Study documents butterfly diversity of suburban and rural stretches of district Hooghly located in southern West Bengal within the Saraswati-Ganga floodplain. Here five habitat patches were considered varying from fruit orchards with closed canopy cover, bamboo forest to open agroecosystem or suburbs with varying anthropogenic activity as study sites during a survey spanning March, 2022 to February, 2024. Overall, 53 butterfly species from five families of Hesperiidae (16.98 %), Papilionidae (15.09 %), Pieriidae (20.75 %), Nymphalidae (28.04 %) and Lycaenidae (16.98 %) were identified. Abundance of butterflies found to be positively correlated with the arrival of monsoon and availability of diverse host plants with relatively low disturbance. Parallel to this a botanical survey records 61 species from 24 families of nectaring and egg-laying host plants. Family Nymphalidae showed broad choice for host plants (14 families) compared to the others. Study also documents the biotope preferences in butterflies and host plant similarities (iso-vegetational similarities) within the habitat patches depending on the species availability.