The diversity and abundance of butterflies in Ancra forest.

Abstract

Forests provide critical habitats for tropical butterflies world-wide. However, habitat variation and disturbance within forests can affect butterfly communities and diversity in complex ways.Diversity of butterfly communities of Acrah forest, Mukono municipality, central Uganda was studied in four different habitat types (closed forest, open forest, forest edge, and scrubland) from 6th May to 7th June 2024. A total of 18 species belonging to three families were recorded. Descriptive statistics was used to present the data, while ANOVA with ukey posthoc tests were used to analyze the data. A total of 67 individual butterflies were caught using both sweep net and baited traps. Results showed a dominance of family Nymphalidae followed by Pieridae and Papilionidae. The results showed that butterfly diversity and abundance of Acrah forest is moderately low with a total diversity index (H=2.25). The closed forest had the highest butterfly diversity and abundance, whereas the scrubland showed the lowest butterfly diversity. Furthermore, the abundance of butterflies in Scrubland was significantly higher (p< 0.05) than other habitat types. Among all habitats surveyed, the closed forest represented the most suitable habitat for biodiversity conservation. The study demonstrates that closed forests are rich in butterfly diversity. Furthermore, an extensive inventory should be done to determine which species currently occupy Acrah forest and its surrounding landscapes to design appropriate conservation strategies.