Cool habitats support darker and bigger butterflies in Australian tropical forests

Morphology mediates the relationship between an organism's body temperature and its environment. Dark organisms, for example, tend to absorb heat more quickly than lighter individuals, which could influence their responses to temperature. Therefore, temperature‐related traits such as morphology may affect patterns of species abundance, richness, and community assembly across a broad range of spatial scales. In this study, we examined variation in color lightness and body size within butterfly communities across hot and cool habitats in the tropical woodland–rainforest ecosystems of northeast Queensland, Australia. Using thermal imaging, we documented the absorption of solar radiation relative to color lightness and wingspan and then built a phylogenetic tree based on available sequences to analyze the effects of habitat on these traits within a phylogenetic framework. In general, darker and larger individuals were more prevalent in cool, closed‐canopy rainforests than in immediately adjacent and hotter open woodlands. In addition, darker and larger butterflies preferred to be active in the shade and during crepuscular hours, while lighter and smaller butterflies were more active in the sun and midday hours—a pattern that held after correcting for phylogeny. Our ex situ experiment supported field observations that dark and large butterflies heated up faster than light and small butterflies under standardized environmental conditions. Our results show a thermal consequence of butterfly morphology across habitats and how environmental factors at a microhabitat scale may affect the distribution of species based on these traits. Furthermore, this study highlights how butterfly species might differentially respond to warming based on ecophysiological traits and how thermal refuges might emerge at microclimatic and habitat scales.     

Catch me if you can--predation affects divergence in a polyphenic species

Predation is a major driving force in evolution. Predation has been shown to select for size, morphology, and camouflage. Many animals use camouflage to reduce predation risk. In some cases, individuals can adjust their pigmentation, enabling them a higher survival in a heterogeneous environment. Here, we show that the difference in pigmentation between juvenile perch individuals (Perca fluvuiatilis) occupying different environments (open water and vegetated habitats of lakes) is likely a consequence of predator selection. Lightly pigmented individuals have a higher chance of survival in open water whereas darker pigmented individuals survive better in vegetation. As a response to predators, individuals forced into the vegetation by predators developed darker skin whereas the skin of individuals forced into open water became lighter. In a common garden experiment, in the absence of predation, we found that pigmentation in juvenile perch is only due to plasticity and not to genetic variation. However, contrary to predictions, individuals raised in open water developed darker skin compared to individuals raised in vegetation. This may be a response to UV-stress. Overall, our results suggest that predation can be a strong selective agent on pigmentation differences among conspecifics occupying different habitats.     

Camouflage versus running performance as strategies against predation in a lizard inhabiting different habitats

Running speed and camouflage are associated with the foraging and anti‐predator abilities of animals. The toad‐headed lizard, Phrynocephalus versicolor, has evolved a darker dorsal color in melanistic habitats and maintained a lighter color in adjacent, non‐melanistic habitats. We test the hypothesis that lizards have weaker running speed on well‐matching backgrounds than on less matching backgrounds. We used lizard models to compare the predation pressure, while the running speed of dark and light lizards were compared in field tunnels using a video recording method. Our results indicated that both the dark lizards in melanistic Heishankou (HSK) and the light lizards in non‐melanistic Guazhou (GZ) face lower predation pressure than potential color‐background unmatched lizards. The light lizards have a potentially higher running speed than darker lizards in melanistic habitats, which implies that substrate color matching populations with benefits of camouflage might have lower anti‐predation pressure, and the costs of investment in melanin production may reduce running capacity.     

Butterfly diversity and historical land cover change along an altitudinal gradient

Land cover and climate change are both major threats for biodiversity. In mountain ecosystems species have to adapt to fragmented habitats and harsh environmental conditions but so far, altitudinal effects in combination with land cover change have been rarely studied. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of altitude and historical land cover change on butterfly diversity. We studied species richness patterns of butterflies occuring in wetlands and other open habitats along an altitudinal gradient in a low mountain region (340–750 m a.s.l., Bavaria, Germany) with drastic loss of open habitats within the last 40–60 years. We recorded in 27 sites a total of 4,523 individuals of 49 butterfly species and five species of burnet moths. Species richness peaked at mid elevation and increased with patch size. Land cover change was most pronounced at high altitudes, but neither current open habitats, nor the historical loss of open habitats affected the species richness of butterflies. Neither open land specialized butterflies nor generalist and forest species were significantly affected by the loss of open habitats. However, increasing forest area in high altitudes reduces possible refuge open habitats for butterflies at their thermal distribution limits. This could lead to extinction of such butterfly species when temperatures further rise due to global warming.     

Butterflies as an indicator group of riparian ecosystem assessment

Riparian ecosystems play an important role in modulating a range of ecosystem processes that affect aquatic and terrestrial organisms. Butterflies are a major herbivore in terrestrial ecosystems and are also common in riparian ecosystems. Since butterflies use plants for larval food and adult nectar sources in riparian ecosystems, butterfly diversity can be utilized to evaluate riparian ecosystems. We compiled butterfly data from 33 sites in three riparian ecosystem types across the country and compared butterfly diversity in terms of number of species and quality index in relation to riparian environmental variables. Number of butterfly and plant species was not different among three riparian habitat types. Additionally, there was no significant ecological variable to distinguish the butterfly communities on three riparian habitats. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling ordination showed that butterfly communities in three riparian ecosystem types differed from each other, and butterfly riparian quality index was the main variable for butterfly assemblages. Five indicator species for moor and another five species for riverine riparian ecosystems were identified. Three and one indicator species for moor and riparian ecosystems, respectively, were plant specialists, while 44 butterflies were general feeders, feeding on a wide range of hostplants in several habitats. These results suggest that butterfly species use actively riparian habitats for nectar and larval food, and the butterfly riparian quality index can be employed to track faunal change in riparian habitats, which are frequently threatened by disturbances such as water level and climate changes, and invasive species.     

Are butterflies and moths suitable ecological indicator systems for restoration measures of semi-natural calcareous grassland habitats?

The selection of suitable ecological indicator groups is of great importance for environmental assessments. To test and compare two such groups, we performed transect walks of butterflies and light traps of moths at eight sample localities in the Carinthian Alps. All of them were conducted with identical methods in the years 2002 and 2004 allowing the evaluation of the response on the conservation measures performed on five of the eight sites in late 2002. We recorded a total of 2346 butterflies (including Zygaenidae and Sesiidae) representing 83 species and 7025 moths of 534 species. 150 of these species were listed in the Red Data Book of Carinthia. In general, butterflies increased from 2002 to 2004 while moths declined. The highest increase rates of butterflies were obtained for the numbers of individuals of calcareous grassland specialists at the conservation sites, while their numbers were unchanged at the control sites. Similar trend differences between conservation and control sites were obtained for the Red Data Book butterfly species. On the contrary, the development of moth individuals was more positive at the control than the conservation sites for calcareous grassland specialists (only macro-moths) and species of the Red Data Book. However, change rates of species numbers were positively correlated between butterflies and moths. Principal Component Analysis revealed strong differences between the different sites, but mostly consistent results for butterflies and moths; however, stronger differences between years were only detected for some of the conservation sites for the butterfly communities. Our results show that butterflies as well as moths are suitable ecological indicator groups, but they do not yield identical results. Thus, butterflies are more suitable for the analysis of open habitats, whereas moths are suitable for open and forested habitats as well. Furthermore, butterflies might be a more sensitive indicator group than moths for the short-term detection of conservation measures, especially for the restoration of open habitat types.     

Artificial nest predation rates vary among habitats in the Australian monsoon tropics

Rates of nest predation have frequently been shown to differ between fragmented and unfragmented habitats, but have rarely been compared among natural habitats in the same geographic region. In this study, artificial nests of two types (open cup and domed) were placed in four habitats (mangroves, monsoon rainforests, eucalypt woodlands and paperbark swamps) over 12 months in three localities near Darwin in the Australian monsoon tropics to determine the effects of habitat, season and nest type on the rate of nest predation. A quail egg and a similarly coloured plasticine egg were placed in each nest. Habitat had a strong effect on nest predation rates, with nests in mangroves experiencing predation rates more than four times higher than those in eucalypt woodlands and paperbark swamps. Despite the strong rainfall seasonality of the region, there was no consistent seasonal variation in nest predation rates. Nest type also had little influence on predation rates, except in paperbark swamps where open cup nests suffered a higher predation rate than domed nests. The study indicates that generalised nest predation rates for tropical regions, even for small areas (e.g. <17 km radius), might overlook substantial variation between habitats. Such variation confounds purported differences in nest predation rates between tropical and temperate regions.     

Enhancement of chromatic contrast increases predation risk for striped butterflies

Many prey species have evolved defensive colour patterns to avoid attacks. One type of camouflage, disruptive coloration, relies on contrasting patterns that hinder predators' ability to recognize an object. While high contrasts are used to facilitate detection in many visual communication systems, they are thought to provide misleading information about prey appearance in disruptive patterns. A fundamental tenet in disruptive coloration theory is the principle of 'maximum disruptive contrast', i.e. disruptive patterns are more effective when higher contrasts are involved. We tested this principle in highly contrasting stripes that have often been described as disruptive patterns. Varying the strength of chromatic contrast between stripes and adjacent pattern elements in artificial butterflies, we found a strong negative correlation between survival probability and chromatic contrast strength. We conclude that too high a contrast leads to increased conspicuousness rather than to effective camouflage. However, artificial butterflies that sported contrasts similar to those of the model species Limenitis camilla survived equally well as background-matching butterflies without these stripes. Contrasting stripes do thus not necessarily increase predation rates. This result may provide new insights into the design and characteristics of a range of colour patterns such as sexual, mimetic and aposematic signals.     

Butterfly communities in South Australian urban reserves: Estimating abundance and diversity using the Pollard walk

Abstract Remnant habitats within and surrounding urbanized areas are becoming increasingly important for maintaining butterfly diversity. The ‘Pollard walk’ protocol has been used widely overseas to estimate and monitor species diversity and abundance of butterflies. However, there has been limited use of this technique in Australia. Here, we used the Pollard walk method to estimate the diversity of butterflies at three urban sites around Adelaide, South Australia: Belair National Park (BNP), Shepherds Hill Recreation Park (SHRP) and Brownhill Creek Recreation Park (BCRP). In total, 21 species of butterfly were detected across the three sites. Pollard walks detected butterfly species from five families, including rare and highly localized lycaenid and hesperiid species. The highest diversity of species was found at BCRP (16) followed by BNP (14) and SHRP (14). Multivariate analysis on the data revealed a distinct and temporally variable butterfly community at BNP when compared with the SHRP and BCRP. The results of this study show that the Pollard walk can be effectively used to distinguish communities and detect a wide variety of butterflies, including cryptic and rare species, within urban habitats of Adelaide.     

Extreme habitats are not refuges: poeciliids suffer from increased aerial predation risk in sulphidic southern Mexican habitats

Extreme environments are often considered a predation refuge for organisms living in them. In southern Mexico several species of poeciliid fishes are undergoing incipient speciation in a variety of extreme (i.e. permanently dark and/or sulphidic) freshwater systems, and previous research has demonstrated reproductive isolation between populations from sulphidic and adjacent benign habitats. In the present study, we investigated bird predation rates (measured as successful captures per minute) in two sulphidic surface and several benign surface habitats, to test the hypothesis that extreme habitats are predation refuges. We found capture rates to be approximately 20 times higher in sulphidic environments: probably facilitated by extremophile poeciliids spending most of their time at the water surface, where they engage in aquatic surface respiration as a direct response to hypoxia. Even birds that are usually not considered major fish predators regularly engage in fish predation in the toxic habitats of southern Mexico. Our results demonstrate that extreme environments do not necessarily represent a refuge from predation, and we discuss the general importance of predation in driving incipient speciation in these systems. Finally, we hypothesize that natural selection via avian predation may play an important role in maintaining reproductive isolation between divergent poeciliid populations. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 101 , 417–426.     

Effects of substrate color on intraspecific body color variation in the toad‐headed lizard,Phrynocephalus versicolor

Diversity in animal coloration is generally associated with adaptation to their living habitats, ranging from territorial display and sexual selection to predation or predation avoidance, and thermoregulation. However, the mechanism underlying color variation in toad‐headed Phrynocephalus lizards remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the population color variation of Phrynocephalus versicolor. We found that lizards distributed in dark substrate have darker dorsal coloration (melanic lizards) than populations living in light substrates. This characteristic may improve their camouflage effectiveness. A reciprocal substrate translocation experiment was conducted to clarify the potential role of morphological adaptation and physiological plasticity of this variation. Spectrometry technology and digital photography were used to quantify the color variation of the above‐mentioned melanic and nonmelanic P. versicolor populations and their native substrate. Additionally, substrate color preference in both populations was investigated with choice experiments. Our results indicate that the melanic and nonmelanic populations with remarkable habitat color difference were significantly different on measured reflectance, luminance, and RGB values. Twenty‐four hours, 30 days, and 60 days of substrate translocation treatment had little effects on dorsal color change. We also found that melanic lizards choose to live in dark substrate, while nonmelanic lizards have no preference for substrate color. In conclusion, our results support that the dorsal coloration of P. versicolor, associated with substrate color, is likely a morphological adaptation rather than phenotypic plasticity.     

Rockpool Gobies Change Colour for Camouflage

Camouflage is found in a wide range of species living in numerous habitat types, offering protection from visually guided predators. This includes many species from the intertidal zone, which must cope with background types diverse in appearance and with multiple predator groups foraging at high and low tide. Many animals are capable of either relatively slow (hours, days, weeks) or rapid (seconds and minutes) colour change in order to better resemble the background against which they are found, but most work has been restricted to a few species or taxa. It is often suggested that many small intertidal fish are capable of colour change for camouflage, yet little experimental work has addressed this. Here, we test rock gobies (Gobius paganellus) for colour change abilities, and whether they can tune their appearance to match the background. In two experiments, we place gobies on backgrounds of different brightness (black or white), and of different colours (red and blue) and use digital image analysis and modelling of predator (avian) vision to quantify colour and luminance (perceived lightness) changes and camouflage. We find that gobies are capable of rapid colour change (occurring within one minute), and that they can change their luminance on lighter or darker backgrounds. When presented on backgrounds of different colours, gobies also change their colour (hue and saturation) while keeping luminance the same. These changes lead to predicted improvements in camouflage match to the background. Our study shows that small rockpool fish are capable of rapid visual change for concealment, and that this may be an important mechanism in many species to avoid predation, especially in complex heterogeneous environments.     

Butterfly communities respond to structural changes in forest restorations and regeneration in lowland Atlantic Forest,Paraná, Brazil

The Atlantic forest is one of the most diverse biomes on Earth but human activities are transforming this ecosystem into one of the most endangered. Most remnant old-growth rainforest is embedded within a mosaic of regenerating forest, tree plantations, pastures, and agricultural production. This has left a large percentage of the region’s endemic species threatened with extinction. Butterflies are considered as sensitive indicators of ecological conditions, especially in the Atlantic forest. This community can provide a window into animal response to restoration and how recovering habitats are used by native animal communities. The primary goal of this paper was to determine if butterfly communities respond to measures of structural recovery in naturally regenerating and re-forested pastures, and if this response increases the similarity of recovering butterfly communities relative to those of intact forests. Butterfly communities were sampled using two sampling methodologies, passive bait trapping and timed meander counts. These data sets were combined and correlated to assessment of habitat structure. We found that butterfly communities respond rapidly to structural changes in habitats as forest structure recovers on abandoned and restored pastures. While many species of mature forest inhabiting butterflies use regenerating forests as habitat, our young forests also retained an almost intact community of ruderal pasture inhabiting butterflies as well, indicating that these habitats retain many features of highly disturbed pastures. We suggest that measures of beta-diversity, which can be used to assess convergence in community structure, are far superior to the alpha-diversity measures that are typically used for assessing restoration recovery.     

Darker where cold and wet: Australian birds follow their own version of Gloger's rule

Gloger's rule is usually interpreted as predicting darker coloured animals in warmer and more humid/vegetated regions. The relative importance of temperature and rainfall or vegetation is however unclear, and often only one variable is tested at a time, mainly through proxies. Here, I assess the predictions of Gloger's rule for interspecific achromatic plumage variation (dark to light variation) for an entire avifauna (551 species of Australian landbirds). I tested the effects of climatic variables (temperature and rainfall) and vegetation structure on plumage reflectance at species and assemblage level (100 × 100 km cells), controlling for phylogenetic relatedness and spatial autocorrelation. To assess the robustness of these results I compared observed results with those of a null distribution of effects obtained from repeatedly simulating random plumage reflectance evolution on the phylogeny. At both the species and assemblage level, darker coloured birds were found in wetter and colder regions and in more densely vegetated habitats. Simulations confirm results at the species level and the effect of temperature at the assemblage level, but rainfall and vegetation effects at the assemblage level fall within the distribution of simulated effects and should be interpreted with care. Interspecific colour variation in Australian birds supports Gloger's rule for rainfall/vegetation, but shows the opposite pattern for temperature. Darker colours in wet and vegetated environments are consistent with the role of melanin pigmentation in preventing feather degradation by bacteria, but also with background‐matching for camouflage. Darker plumage might be beneficial in colder regions or detrimental in warmer regions if it affects thermoregulation, a selective force often only assumed to be of importance for ectotherms. The data highlight the need to test the generality of biogeographic rules across levels and at broad scale. Experimental work is needed to confirm the mechanisms linking plumage achromatic variation to climate.     

Insects of the Muni-Pomadze Ramsar site

A variety of collection methods were used to inventory the insect diversity of the Muni-Pomadze Ramsar site along the Ghana coastline. A total of 75 butterfly species in five families were collected and identified. Twenty-six percent of the butterfly species were open country species. The butterflies were all typical of the coastal zone and no endangered or narrowly endemic species were recorded. The Muni-Pomadze site was also rich in other insect species (67 insect species belonging to 15 orders) as a result of the diverse terrestrial habitats surrounding the lagoon. Butterfly species composition changed with habitat indicating a fine-grained response by the butterfly communities to habitat changes. Data from long-term monitoring of butterfly communities at Muni-Pomadze could prove useful as indicators of habitat quality.     

The effects of disturbance on forest butterflies using two methods of sampling in Trinidad

The butterfly assemblages of pairs of forest habitats, differing in disturbance level, within the Victoria Mayaro reserve of South-East Trinidad, are described using walk-and-count transects and canopy and understorey fruit traps. The concurrent use of these two butterfly censusing techniques, revealed major but conflicting differences in species accumulation rates under different disturbance conditions. The disturbed evergreen habitat had the significantly highest accumulation rate from walk-and-count data but the significantly lowest from fruit trap data. This reflects the specificity of much of the fruit-feeding guild for closed canopy forest. Disturbed habitats were found to lack a distinct canopy fauna. These results are discussed in light of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. Within a region of forest, butterflies were found to be more characteristic of a disturbance level than of a particular forest type, lending weight to the belief that butterfly faunas can be used as bioindicators of forest disturbance. Several restricted geographic range species were not adversely affected by forest disturbance, at these levels of disturbance. The butterfly censuses in this study suggest that the optimal strategy for safeguarding butterfly species richness under natural forest management regimes would be to maintain a mosaic of habitats that included areas of undisturbed primary forest and a network of other forest patches, that varied in management regime and level of disturbance.     

Effects of managing semi-natural grassland buffers on butterflies

Butterflies are important components of biodiversity in grassland ecosystems and provide ecosystem services such as pollination. Although agricultural intensification has led to a scarcity of native grassland habitats within most agricultural landscapes of North America, fragmented remnants and semi-natural habitats may support diverse communities, including butterflies, as long as vital resources such as host plants are available. The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Conservation Reserve Program practice CP33 Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds (USDA 2004) provides semi-natural grassland habitat in agricultural landscapes, but a knowledge gap exists about impacts of prescribed disturbance (e.g. burning or disking) on butterflies. We monitored butterfly habitat and butterfly communities on experimentally manipulated CP33 grassland buffers in Clay County, Mississippi from 2007 to 2009. Disturbance guild butterfly species richness did not differ among treatments. However, disturbance guild abundance was positively affected by disking in both the first and second growing seasons following disking, and the magnitude of this response varied between years. Effects of burning on disturbance guild abundance did not differ from the control treatment. There were no treatment differences for grassland guild butterfly abundance and species richness suggesting that periodic disturbance does not unduly impact grassland-associated butterflies in the southeastern US. Our results support current USDA practice standards that require periodic disturbance during the 10-year contract, but restrict the disturbance to 1/3 or 1/4 of grassland buffer area in a given year.     

Beak marks on the wings of butterflies and predation pressure in the field

Beak marks on butterfly wings have been used as an indicator of predation pressure. The relationship between butterflies and their predators in the field was examined to evaluate the beak mark rate as an indicator of predation pressure. Transect censuses were conducted to measure the beak mark rate on butterflies from May to November, 2010, in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. A total of 1216 butterflies of 42 species from five families were observed during the study period. The beak mark rate in the Papilionidae was significantly higher than those of all other families. Analysis of the monthly fluctuations in the beak mark rate and relative abundance of predators revealed that the higher beak mark rates observed for two butterfly families (Papilionidae and Nymphalidae) were significantly and positively related to predation pressure, while no significant relationship was found for other families (Lycaenidae, Pieridae and Hesperiidae). Beak marks in larger butterflies (Papilionidae and Nymphalidae) can be used as an indicator to evaluate the relative intensity of predation pressure in the field.     

云南高黎贡山地区蝴蝶群落多样性

位于滇西北的高黎贡山是全球生物多样性研究和保护的热点地区之一, 然而该地区昆虫多样性缺乏系统调查和总结。本研究聚焦蝴蝶类群, 考虑该区域高山峡谷特点, 结合海拔梯度、生境类型和季节变化, 采用样线法调查、分析蝴蝶物种多样性及群落结构变化。结果显示: 共观测记录到蝴蝶2,055只, 隶属于5科85属151种, 在历史记录上新增27种, 使该地区已知蝴蝶种类达488种; 其中蛱蝶科物种多样性最高, 灰蝶科次之, 凤蝶科最低。蝴蝶群落多样性分析结果表明: 中海拔1,000-2,000 m区域种类丰富、多样性指数最高; 低海拔区蝴蝶分布明显聚集, 并且与高海拔地区空间上分离, 少有重叠。该地区不同生境中蝴蝶的种类及数量差异也较大, 物种数及多样性指数在自然保护区最高、边缘交错带居中及农业种植区最低。此外, 蝴蝶的种类和数量也存在季节差异, 春季调查到的个体数少, 夏季观察到的物种数少, 两年秋季调查到的物种丰富度、多样性均高, 但存在季节内变化。总之, 高黎贡山地区不同海拔、生境、季节间和季节内蝴蝶群落组成有自身特点, 共存物种有限, 蝴蝶群落相似性低。综合评估分布于该地区的蝴蝶保护种类, 包括易危种17种、近危种50种, 有国家二级保护蝴蝶3种。本研究弄清了高黎贡山地区蝴蝶的物种本底, 并调查获得其多样性随海拔、生境和季节变化的模式, 为加强区域物种多样性监测、保护生物多样性提供了科学依据。     

西双版纳热带植物园蝴蝶的多样性及变化

中国科学院西双版纳热带植物园（简称“版纳植物园”）保存着上万种植物,且生境多样,具有较高的蝴蝶多样性。本研究选择三类代表性生境：片段化雨林、次生林和专类园,聚焦于环境指示物种蝴蝶这一类群,通过样线法系统调查一年内蝴蝶多样性及其变化。观测结果显示：蝴蝶在版纳植物园内全年发生,共调查到其成虫5科126属218种6 015头,其中蛱蝶科多样性最高。蝴蝶种类及数量随月动态变化,生境间有差异,7-8月种类和数量达到最高峰;1月种类最少,而5-6月数量最低;每月均出现的种类仅有12种,绝大部分种类分散发生于不同月份。影响蝴蝶群落多样性的气候因子中,月最高温显著影响蝴蝶群落的物种丰富度和数量,月最低温显著影响物种丰富度、香农多样性和辛普森多样性,月平均温仅显著影响香农多样性。在版纳的三个典型季节中蝴蝶多样性存在差异,雨季物种丰富度最高,干热季香农和辛普森指数最高;雨季和雾凉季蝴蝶群落组成差异大,仅雾凉季与干热季的蝴蝶群落呈现中等程度相似。此外,在片段化雨林、次生林和专类园这3种不同生境中,蝴蝶群落组成也存在差异,蝴蝶物种丰富度和香农指数在次生林中最高,而辛普森指数则是片段化雨林最高;仅次生林与片段化雨林的蝴蝶群落呈现出中等程度相似。本研究揭示了版纳植物园蝴蝶群落的种类组成与月动态变化规律,并明确了不同季节和生境中蝴蝶群落的多样性变化,可为区域蝴蝶多样性观测及保护提供参考依据。