Atlantic Forest Butterflies: Indicators for Landscape Conservation1

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest region (wide sense) includes very complex tropical environments, increasingly threatened by extensive anthropogenic conversion (>90%). Ecologically specialized, short-generation insects (butterflies) are evaluated here as indicators for monitoring community richness, landscape integrity, and sustainable resource use in the region. The > 2100 butterfly species in the Atlantic Forest region have been censused in many sites over 35 years, giving comparable daily, weekly, monthly, and long-term site lists. The 21 most thoroughly studied sites include 218-914 species, of which half can be censused in a week or less. The butterfly communities are divided into six relatively distinct faunal regions, centered in the northeast, the central coastal tablelands, the southeast coastal plain, the mountains plus interior of the southeastern states, thc central plateau, and the southern states. Species richness shows the highest values in coastal mountains from 15 to 23"s. Local butterfly communities show a high turnover, with 20 to 40 percent of the species, especially small Lycaenidae and Hesperiidae, recorded only as unstable populations or "tourists." Easily sampled species in the family Nymphalidae, and especially its bait-attracted subfamilies, are best correlated with the entire butterfly fauna and can bc used as surrogates for species diversity. In most butterfly groups, species richness is well predicted by landscape connectivity alone, or by composite indices of environmental heterogeneity, natural disturbance, and (negatively) anthropogenic disturbance. Principal components and redundancy analyses showed that the richness and proportions of different butterfly groups in the local fauna are variably explained by disturbance, seasonality, temperature, vegetation, soils, and landscape connectivity. Various groups thus can be used as rapid indicators of different types of change in the community, its environment, and the landscape. Threatened and rare species also can be used as indicators of the most unique Atlantic Forest communities (paleoenvironments), which need special attention. RESUMOA regizo da Mata Atlintica latu sensu inclui ambientes tropicais muito complexos, cada vez mais ameagados por extensa convers%o antr6pica (>90%). Insetos pequenos, especializados, e de ciclo ripido (borboletas) sPo avaliados neste trabalho como indicadores para o monitoramento da riqueza de comunidades, integridade de paisagens, e us0 sustentivel de recursos na regido. As >2100 espCcies de borboletas na regido da Mata Atlhntica t&m sido recenseadas em muitos sitios durante 0s Liltimos 35 anos, dando listas compariveis diirias, semanais, mensais e totais para cada sitio. 0 s 21 sitios mais intensivamente estudados incluem 218-914 espCcies, das quais metade pode ser amostrada em uma semana ou menos. As comunidades de borboletas sdo divididas em seis subregibes faunisticas relativamente distintas, centradas no nordeste, nos tabuleiros baianos, no litoral do sudeste, nas regi6es montanhosas no interior dos estados do s...

Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea) of the Private Reserve of Natural Heritage Fazenda Lontra/Saudade, Itanagra, Northern Coast of Bahia, Brazil

“…Considering Nymphalidae as a surrogate (25-29%) of the total butterfly fauna (Brown & Freitas 2000a), the total richness in the FLS could reach 300 to 350 species, equivalent or higher to the total richness of ''Mata do Buraquinho'', João Pessoa, Paraiba, with a sampling effort of five years (Kesselring & Ebert 1982). Based on the present data and other inventories performed in this area, FLS should be considered as a priority area for biodiversity conservation in the Atlantic Forest.…”

Borboletas (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea e Hesperioidea) do Parque Estadual do Espinilho e entorno, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil

“…1), refletindo a impossibilidade de registrar toda a fauna com um número restrito de horas de amostragem (BROWN JR. & FREITAS 2000); entretanto, a partir da sétima ocasião amostral, a inclinação da curva torna-se mais suave. A extensão temporal de um inventário tende a aumentar o número total de espécies registradas, além de aumentar a probabilidade de detecção de espécies com tamanhos populacionais baixos (SUMMERVILLE et al 2001); por outro lado, a proporção de espécies "turistas" tende a crescer na amostra (GASTON 1996) e geralmente é difícil distinguir entre as duas situações.…”

Butterflies (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea) of the "Baixada Santista" region, coastal São Paulo, southeastern Brazil

“…The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is a heterogeneous and endangered biome (Brown & Freitas 2000b), and according to Morellato & Haddad (2000) and Tabarelli et al (2005) less than 10% of it remains. In the past ten years, a number of butterfly inventories in the Atlantic Forest have been published (see Santos et al 2008 for a recent review on this topic), but much more information is needed for a better understanding of the general patterns of butterfly distribution in this biome.…”