Monitoring of Butterfly Diversity in Diverse Eco‐Climatic Zones of Maharajganj District, Uttar Pradesh, India

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AgroEnvironmental Sustainability
Suresh Kumar , Sanjay Kumar

Abstract

Butterflies are colourful, attractive and ecologically important creatures on the earth. The present study has been carried out in the three different climatic zones of Maharajganj district of Uttar Pradesh, India, during the months of July to December 2024. The three sampling sites were selected, i.e. Vijay Park, Farinda and Paneva Panei, to investigate the diversity of butterfly species. A total of 206 butterfly samples were collected using an insect net. Among them, 13 distinct species of butterflies belonging to 04 different families, such as Nymphalidae, Pieridae, Papilionidae and Lycaenidae were monitored. The family Nymphalidae was most dominant (106), followed by the Pieridae (70), Papilionidae (17) and the Lycaenidae (13). The distribution pattern of butterflies in numbers was shown as 74, 71 and 61 at Vijay Park, Farinda and Paneva Panei, respectively. According to the Simpson Index of Diversity, the sampling site Farindahas showed the highest score (0.88), followed by Vijay Park (0.85) and Paneva Panei (0.82). The finding score revealed that the population of butterflies needs to be protected by conservation of their habitats, which are degrading continuously due to the exponential expansion of urbanisation and agricultural activities.

Keywords

butterfly biodiversity conservation ecosystem ecological indicator

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