Current World Environment

Introduction

The midland exposed laterite biotope associated with diverse ecosystems and microhabitats represents the most imposing and extremely threatened topographical floristic and faunistic features in the northern part of Kerala. Lateritic hills of the study area are unique with high microhabitat diversity and associated rich floral components.¹ The diversity of plants, habitats, topography and climates influence distribution, diversity and abundance of butterflies^2,3 and they are good biological indicators of habitat quality as well as general environmental health.^4,5,6,7 Butterflies play a major role in the ecosystem as they interact with the environment as pollinators, seed dispersers, herbivores, predators and prey.^8,9 Out of the 334 reported butterfly species of Western Ghats, 316 species of butterflies were recorded from Kerala.¹⁰ As per the review of literature, a large number of studies on diversity and distribution of butterflies were done in the protected areas of Kerala includes; Mathew & Rahmathulla¹¹ who reported 100 species from Silent Valley National Park, Sudheendrakumar¹² reported of 124 species from Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary, Shamsudheen and Mathew¹³ reported 73 species Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary, Mathew¹⁴ reported 71 species from Peechi - Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary, Mathew¹⁵ reported 53 species from Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary. Other than protected areas, human dominated non-protected natural habitats like sacred groves, home gardens, and countryside city gardens are also important in terms of butterfly diversity^9,17 as Kunte¹⁸ recorded 104 butterfly species from Pune city along with the human impact gradient, and recently Gaude¹⁷ reported 33 species of butterflies from four selected sacred groves of Goa. As far as Kerala is concerned, Aneesh¹⁹ reported 139 species of butterflies from Kerala Agricultural University Campus, Prasad²⁰ recorded 52 species from Kerala University campus. There is very little information available on the ecology and biodiversity of laterite hills in which Palot and Radhakrishnan²¹ reported 111 species of butterflies from madayippara. The current study focused on butterfly diversity of Midland laterite biotope of Kavvayi river basin, North Kerala. This landscape includes lateritic hills, sacred groves, mangroves, riparian vegetation and locally conserved vegetations such as kaanam. As studies revealed the distribution patterns of many of the organisms that are currently of the greatest international conservation concern don’t coincide with broader diversity patterns like protected areas, parks and sanctuaries.^{22,23, 24,25} Hence diversity assessment in non-protected areas such as laterite hills, Kanams and sacred grooves are also significant.

Study Area

The mid land laterite hills of Kavvayi river basin is located between 12⁰ 05’ to 12⁰ 15’ North latitude and 75⁰ 05’ to 75⁰ 20’ East longitude (Fig 1). It spread over an area of 164.76 km² covering 14 villages and spreads over nine local bodies in the districts of Kannur and Kasargod.

The selected ecosystems include Lateritic hills (IT Park, Ariyittapara and Madayippara); Sacred Groves (Edayilakkadu Kavu, Mappittassery Kavu and Chamakkavu) and ‘Kaanam’ (Vattapoyil Kaanam and Vannathikaanam) which are distributed in Lateritic biotopes of Kannur and Kasargod Districts (Fig 1).

Figure 1: Showing the study area( A1: IT Park, A2: Chamakkavu, A3: Riparian Ecosystem, A4: Madayippara, A5: Ariyittapara, A6: Edayilakkadu Kavu, A7: Vannathikanam, A8: Mappittassery Kavu, A9: Vattappoyi Kanam.  Click here to View figure

Materials and Methods

Butterflies were observed for a period two year from February 2013 to January 2015. The observations were made randomly from 0800 hr to 1100 hr, which is the peak time of butterfly activity and also they were observed from 1530 hr to 1730 hr. Butterflies were identified directly from the field and in difficult cases, they were photographed and identified using the field guides.^26,27 Taxonomy and nomenclature have been updated after.²⁸ Butterflies observed were categorized into three groups based on their occurrence in selected study areas. Accordingly, those observed in 7-9 locations were listed as very common (VC), 4-6 as common (C), 1-3as rare (R).Data were further analysed by cluster analysis based on squared Euclidean distance using SPSS 20 version.

Results and Discussion

The study reports a total of 141 species butterflies from lateritic biotopes of Kavvayi river basin. Among which the highest number of butterfly species were from the family Nymphalidae (48 species) with three Western Ghat endemic butterflies (Cirrochroa thais, Kallima horsfieldii and Mycalesis junonia) followed by Hesperiidae (32 species) with one Western Ghat endemic (Oriens concinna), Lycaenidae (27 species) with one Western Ghat endemic (Curetis siva), Papilionidae (16 species) with two Western Ghat endemics (Papilio dravidarum, Papilio liomedon), Pieridae(16 species)with one Western Ghat endemic (Pareronia ceylonica), and one butterfly from the family Riodinidae. Family wise distribution of butterflies is represented in the Fig. 2. The study area hosts eight butterflies which are protected under various schedules of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (Table 1).

Figure 2: Family wise distribution of butterfly species in lateritic biotope of Kavvai River basin Click here to View figure

Butterfly diversity in different laterite ecosystems is varied in terms of a number of species ( Fig. 3).

Figure 3: Diversity of butterflies in different ecosystems  Click here to View figure

The distribution of a butterfly species in a definite area is mainly based on the diversity of plants, habitats, topography and climates.² Other than the environmental conditions diversity of butterflies in sacred groves is also influenced by the presence of surrounded human settlements and home gardens. The presence of home gardens has a positive influence in Mappittassery and Chamakkavu in terms of a number of butterfly species, whereas in Edayilakkadu Kavu the diversity is comparatively lesser than the other two. The newly proposed IT park area is having a total of 88 species of butterfly among which Pachliopta hector, Papilio clytia, Hypolimnas misippus and Castalius rosimon are protected species under the Schedule I and Appias lyncida is protected species under Schedule II of Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Madayippara and Ariyittapara are two open laterite hills along with riparian ecosystem having the highest number of butterfly species among the other laterite ecosystems respective to the high diversity of host plant species. The high diversity of butterflies in lateritic hills may be due to the presence large number of microhabitats within the system.¹

Figure 4: Dendrogram depicting the clustering of different laterite ecosystems.  Click here to View figure

Dendogram depicting the similarity in species composition between different selected study areas (Fig. 4) showed more similarity between IT park and Chamakkavu followed by Madayippara and Ariyttapara. Madayippara and ariyittapara are open laterite hill top with almost same vegetation, where as in the case of IT park and Chamakkavu both are different in their topography and plant distribution the presence of home gardens around the chamakkav is one the main reason for similarity of butterfly species with the laterite hills of IT park area.

Acknowledgement

The authors are thankful to the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology, and Environment, Government of Kerala for providing financial support. Thanks to Dr.K.V.Sankaran and Dr. P.S .Easa, former Directors of KFRI for their support and encouragement.

Table 1: Butterfly checklist of Laterite ecosystems of Kavvayi river basin, Kerala, India.

A1 IT park, A2 Chamakkavu, A3 Riparian Ecosystem, A4 Madayippara, A5 Ariyittapara, A6Edayilakkadu kavu, A7 Vannathikkanam, A8 Mappittasserry Kavu, A9 Vattappoyil kanam. VC very common, C common, R rare, E endemic to Western Ghats, Sch I, Sch II,Sch IV: Species protected under schedule I, Schedule II and Schedule IV of Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972). + and – are used to represent the presence and absence of butterflies.

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