Butterfly Diversity and Distribution of Southwestern Ethiopia. In Case of Chebera Churchura National Park and Its Surrounding Farmlands

Gebreegziabher Hailay^1* and Emana Getu^2
*Correspondence: Gebreegziabher Hailay, Department of Animal Biodiversity, Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Tel: 251910586097, Email:

Keywords

Butterfly diversity • Chebera churchura • Conservation • Diversity • Land use

Introduction

Butterflies are grouped in order Lepidoptera together with moths and they are the most studied and well-known insects [1]. There are approximately 46 superfamilies, 128 families, and 180,000 species of described Lepidopterans (moths and butterflies) around the world and only less than 10% are butterflies. So far, 2,438 species of lepidoptera comprising 48 families listed in Ethiopia of this 426 species with in ive families are butterflies [2]. They are the most successful insects and found in all parts and habitats of the world except Antarctica [3]. Butterflies are respectable indicators of environmental impacts on biodiversity in different land uses and play important role in the regular functioning of healthy ecosystem [4,5]. The presence of butterflies indicates the presence of other invertebrates such that habitats rich in butterflies are supposed to be rich in other invertebrates. Pollination is the process of transferring pollen grains from one plant to another plant and butterflies play substantial role in natural and agricultural pollination as they feed on nectars of plants. Like other insects’ butterflies are important component of the feeding chain in the ecosystem and are important food source for birds, bats, and other invertebrates. Butterflies have been used as model organisms to study the impact of habitat losses, and fragmentation and climate change by ecologists [6]. Nevertheless, of the above functions, insects’ biodiversity is decreasing at a speedy rate, butterflies are at the frontline of decline, and the most common causes of species decline are habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation [7]. Different land use types support different species of insects [8-10]. Thus, understanding and discovering butterfly diversity in different land areas use types plays an important ecological role in conserving biodiversity conservation to enhance policy decisions about our environment.

According to literature searches on butterfly’s diversity in Ethiopia, about 87 butterfly species were identified in Belete-Gera forest, Ethiopia, 46 species from the Menagesha-Suba State Forest, Ethiopia, while 43 butterfly species were identified from the Gura- Ferda forest, Gura-Ferda woreda, Ethiopia. Similarly about 19 butterfly species were identified from west Shewa while 64 species of butterflies from Jimma Highlands were observed and document described [11-14]. However, no publication on the diversity of butterflies from different land use types in and around Chebera Churchura National park, Southwestern, Ethiopia. Thus, the study focused on the identification, abundance and biodiversity of butterflies on three different land-use types in and around Chebera Churchura National park, Southwestern, Ethiopia and their impacts.

Materials and Methods

Study area description

The study area was situated at 6º53ʹ14ʺN and 36º38ʹ11ʺE and it is 480 km away from Addis Ababa. The park's elevation ranges from 700 to 2450 meters above sea level, with an average yearly temperature of 10 to 29 degrees Celsius. The annual rainfall averages between 1200 mm and 2300 mm. The park has an area of 1119 km² and have four vegetation zones, namely wooded grassland, riverine forest, mountain woodland, and woodland (Figure 1) [15].

Three land-use types namely wooded grassland, riverine forest, and mosaic habitat were selected based on information from literatures and based on the accessibility of the habitats. The geographical coordinates of all the sampling sites were measured with a Global Positioning System (GPS) device. Each of the land use types are described below as follows. Riverine Forest (RF): It was located at 36º41’’ 00.60’’E and 07º00’ 36’’N and at 1176 m.a.s.a. It was characterized by di erent plant species and lowing water. The main plant species of this land use types were Cordia africana, Terminalia laxiflora, Combretum collinum, Clerodendrum alatum, Satureja montana, Ficus sycomorus, Syzygium guineense, Sida rhombifolia, and Grewia mollis.

Wooded Grassland Habitat (WGL): It was positioned at 36º37’’ 47.88’’E and 06º54’ 00’’ N and 1587 m.a.s.l. and covers 62% of the park is an area covered by herbaceous plants with less tree and herb coverage such as Acanthus mollis, Eseveria abyssinica, Crinum ornatum, Ocimum gratissimum, and Clerodendrum alatum. Mosaic environment: It was found at 36º40’’17.04’’E and 07º01’12’’N and elevation 1444 mal found in Seri kebele outside of the national park. It was mainly its high level of interaction with wildlife, and lepidopterans do not appear to be immune to the efects of human interaction Mangifera indica, Colocasia esculenta, Terminalia laxifelera, Combretum mole, Combretum collinum, Entada africana, Prunus africana and Harrisonia abyssinica were some representatives.

Butterfly collection and identification

Purposive sampling was used to collect samples of butterflies according to pollard line transect method [16]. Surveys were conducted once a month for each site from January 25 to June 25, and sampling was done from 9:00 am to 12:00 am and 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm each site was sampled once every month and six times throughout the sampling period. All the voucher specimens were stored and identified at Ethiopian biodiversity institute. The identification of the specimens was done using all available publications/keys such as [17-19]. Climate trend analysis was also done using Microsoft Excel version 2016 by taking the climate data for the five years from 2013 to 2017 from the world climate database to analyze the effect on the population's distribution [20].

Data analysis

Diversity indices: Selected diversity indices namely Shannon diversity index, Simpson diversity index, species richness, evenness, and abundance. Shannon diversity index: is the measure of species richness and abundance using the following formula. H=-Σ[(pi) × log (pi)]W here: H-Shannon diversity index; pi-Proportion of individuals of i^th species in a whole community; n-individuals of a given species; N-total number of individuals in a community; Σ-Sum symbol and log-Usually the natural logarithm. Simpson's diversity indices: Is the value of Simpson's index reflects how many different types of species are in a community and how evenly distributed the population of each species is. It is the probability that any two individuals randomly selected from an in initely large community will belong to the same species, given by the following formula: D=Σpi² where D is the dominance index, 1-D is Simpson’s diversity index; pi is the proportion of individuals in the ith species.

Evenness: Pielou's measure of species evenness given by the formula J=H'/ln(S) where H' is Shannon Weiner diversity and S is the total number of species in a sample, across all samples in dataset. Abundance of species: is the actual number of individuals in a population. Species richness: S is the total number of species in a sample, across all samples in dataset. Jaccard's index (Cj)=j/(A+B-j) was used to determine the similarity of lepidopterans in different habitats. Where j is the number of species that are similar to both sites, and A is the number of species that are unique to each site 1 B=the total number of species at site 2.

Statistical analysis: SPSS version 26 was used to calculate the significance habitat association using chi-square test regarding to moth species diversity and abundance. Pearson’s Correlation of butterfly species with climatic data was also calculated. PAST 4.10 were also used to calculate the diversity indices and species refraction curves.

Results

Composition of total butterfly species

A total of 79 butterfly species with five families, 3801 individuals and 33 genera were recorded in the study area (Table 1). Family Nymphalidae with 42 species (57.6% of total population of sampled butterflies), has the highest abundance while family Pieridae with 17 species (22%) and 7 genera was ranked the second diversified followed by family papilonidae, Lycanidae, abd Heaspariidae.

Butterfly species composition across land use types

Riverine forest had the greatest diversity and abundance with 54 species and 1611 individuals, and the least species composition was recorded in mosaic habitat with 23 species and 659 individuals (Table 2). Kruskal-Wallis test was used to test the significance and reveled that (H (chi2))=19.89, p=1.274E-05) there was significant difference between sample medians across land use types. Table 3 showed that species composition and abundance in the three different land use types. In the riverine forest Acraea acara and Belenois aurota were the most frequently occurring species while the least frequent species was Graphium angolanus. The most abundant species in wooded grassland were Leptosia alcesta and the least abundant were Cacyreus lingeus and Deudorix antalus. The highest abundant butterfly species in the mosaic habitat was Anthene opalina while the least abundant was Dixeia orbona. Butterfly species of members of the families Nymphalidae, Pieridae, Papilionidae and Lycaenidae were common across the three land use types with exception of members of the family Hesparidae absent in mosaic habitat.

According to the diversity indices (both Shannon and Simpson indices), results demonstrated that the riverine forest has the highest species diversity followed by wooded grassland and the least diverse was the Moosic habitat. The evenness index was highest in wooded grassland followed by riverine forest and the least was recorded in Moosic habitat. Jaccard index of similarity of butterflies by habitat type was calculated and results showed that the highest similarity was found between wooded grassland and mosaic habitats, followed by riverine forest and wooded grassland, and the least was between riverine forest and mosaic habitat (Table 4).

Monthly abundance of butterfly species across land use types

Based on month of sampling January had the highest number of butterflies, with 940 individuals accounting for 25%, followed by February, with 749 individuals accounting for 20%. The lowest number of butterflies was recorded in the month of June with 460 individuals accounting for 12% (Figure 1). Out of 1,611 butterflies recorded from the riverine forest, 420 butterflies (highest) was recorded in January and the least recorded in June 169. Wooded grassland had about 1,531 butterflies with 300 (highest) butterflies in January and the least was 170 in March. From the total of 659 butterflies recorded in mosaic habitat, the highest abundance was recorded in January with 220 butterflies and the less abundant month was in May with 65 individuals (Figure 2).

Generally, the average monthly rainfall showed increasing trend and decreasing trend of maximum and minimum temperature from January to June (Figure 3). Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis result showed that number of butterflies showed strong positive correlation with minimum and maximum temperature and strong negative correlation with average precipitation (Table 5).

Discussion

The diversity of butterflies was studied in and around Chebera Churchura national park on three different land use types. Based on calculated diversity indices, the diversity of butterflies in and around Chebera Churchura national park is very high. Because the area was distant, devoid of human settlement and agricultural activities, and no considerable deforestation has occurred. As mentioned in different literatures the diversity of butterflies grows in tandem with the diversity of plants. Five families of butterflies have been reported from Ethiopia and all the five families were reported in the current study.

In this study, 79 species of butterflies were identified, which is more than the 64 species of butterflies identified in a previous study done in the Jimma highlands of Ethiopia, 43 from Menagesha- Suba state forest, 43 from Gura-Ferda forest. Some authors confirmed higher numbers of identified butterfly species, such as 87 species from Ethiopia's Belete-Gera forest. In the current study family Nymphalidae was the most abundant due to the reason that they inhabit a variety of habitats, they need open habitat, and feed on a variety of plant species. This result agrees with the results. Butterfly species from the family Herspariidae have been recorded with lower abundance and diversity due to most species have limited host plants.

Comparing the three habitats based on butterfly diversity riverine forest was highly diversified habitat followed by wooded grassland and mosaic habitat was documented with lower diversity of butterflies. The possible reasons could be riverine forest was found inside the national park that is relatively free of human and animal interaction, has a relatively highest diverse plant and provided with river. Due to heavy human and animal disturbance, the mosaic ecosystem has reduced butterfly and plant variety. This shows that protected habitats support more diversity of butterfly species and unprotected and degraded habitats supports less diversity of butterflies. Investigated the diversity of butterflies in and around Manembo-Nembo wildlife reserve in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, and found that diversity out of the wild life reserve were less than inside of the wildlife reserve.

The three habitats’ types were compared by butterfly diversity and the highest similarity index of butterfly communities was found between the wooded grassland and mosaic habitat. This could be the reason that the ecological environment of the two habitats could be similar type and the distance between the habitats were not far from each other.

The number of butterflies varies depending on weather conditions because butterflies are ectothermic and weather affects adult light needed for oviposition, affects the survival of the immature stages and it affects the fecundity rate of butterflies. In the current study area, the sampling month affected the abundance of the butterfly individuals. The number of butterflies decreased from January to June, such that the highest number was recorded in January and the lowest number was in June. The weather data trend analysis revealed that the average monthly rainfall increased from January to June, while the average monthly maximum and minimum temperatures decreased. In this case, the results of the current study agree with the above conclusions. However, the lowest abundance of individuals in June does not necessarily represent the whole population abundance of butterflies in the study area. Butterflies may be present in the study area but undetected because of diapause as adults. The number of pray and predators may contribute the population difference in the study area. In general, the diversity of butterflies in and around Chebera Churchura national park was found suitable for butterflies’ diversity.

Conclusion

The current study focused on the diversity of butterflies in three different land use types. The study region was generally found to be rich in the diversity and abundance of butterflies in all three forms of land use and in all the months of sampling. However, the study area is currently becoming an investment hub, and many road development projects are being planned and ongoing human activities will devastate and harm the richness, abundance, and diversity of butterfly species. As a result, such human induced activities need to be carefully studied to protect biodiversity loss in the current study area and particular attention should be paid to the conservation of biodiversity in general.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Dr. Tesfu Fekensa, Head of the Animal Biodiversity Department at the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI) for his support and guidance and Dr. Tesfaye Awas for identifying plants collected from the park. I would like to extend my gratitude to Mr. Adane Tsegaye, Head of Chebera Chrchura National Park, for his permission to work in the park.

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