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

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Butterflies (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea) of the "Baixada Santista" region, coastal São Paulo, southeastern Brazil. A list with 538 species of butterflies recorded in the Baixada Santista, São Paulo (SE Brazil) is presented. Standard sampling protocols (i.e. with entomological nets) were followed. Baited traps were installed for fruit feeding species. Data from the literature and entomological collections were also considered in the total estimated species richness. The species richness recorded in the Baixada Santista region represents about 16% of the Brazilian butterfly fauna, and 34% of the known butterfly fauna for the state of São Paulo. The present list contains an appreciably higher number of species in comparison to other lists from similar biomes farther south, such as Blumenau in Santa Catarina, and Maquiné in Rio Grande do Sul.

Butterflies of Amazon and Cerrado remnants of Maranhão, Northeast Brazil

“…The influence of sampling effort on species richness is also observed when we compare our total richness (189 species) to intensively sampled areas in the Amazon, such as Rondônia (843) (Emmel & Austin 1990), Parque Nacional del Manu, in Peru (1,300) (Robbins et al 1996) and Parque Estadual do Chandless, Acre (482) (Mielke et al 2010), and Cerrado sites, such as Distrito Federal (504) (Emery et al 2006). Comparing our results with those from other biomes, such as the Atlantic forest, one of the most well inventoried biomes regarding butterflies in Brazil (Santos et al 2008), we observe higher richness in several sites of the later, which shelter from 218 to 914 species (Brown Jr & Freitas 2000, Francini et al 2011). On the other hand, the richness of 189 species that was recorded in the present study was greater than in three of the four butterfly lists previously performed in the state of Maranhão (Garcia et al 1990, Garcia & Bergman 1994, Ramos 2000, highlighting the need for greater sampling effort towards butterflies in the state.…”

“…The butterfly fauna captured in this study represents approximately 6% of the species recorded for Brazil (Brown Jr 1996, Lewinsohn et al 2005, Francini et al 2011. It is known that species richness is strongly dependent on sampling effort, partially explaining the lowest richness in our short-term survey when compared to our expeditions and long-term surveys.…”

“…Hesperiidae is considered, along with Nymphalidae, the richest families in the Neotropical region (Lamas 2004). Moreover, Francini et al (2011) stated that Hesperiidae is expected to be the richest family in relatively complete inventories of Brazil, while Nymphalidae is the best represented butterfly group in short-term studies, probably because nymphalids are easily visualized and identified in the field. In this study, Nymphalidae was considerably richer than Hesperiidae, implying that additional records of hesperids should be expected with an increased sampling effort.…”

“…There are about 3,300 species of butterflies in Brazil (Brown Jr 1996, Lewinsohn et al 2005, Francini et al 2011), but few inventories have been performed in large biomes of the country (Santos et al 2008). The low number of researchers and difficult access to some sites partially explain the lack of information for many areas of Brazil, especially within the North and Northeast regions (Santos et al 2008).…”

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

“…Hesperiidae is considered the dominant family of butterflies in most well sampled Brazilian sites (C. Mielke 1994, Brown 2005, Morais et al 2007, Francini et al 2011, Dolibaina et al 2011. In FLS skippers represented 32% of all butterflies species, with 83 recorded species.…”