Butterfly community composition within a tropical urban landscape is influenced by habitat type and temperature

Abstract

The specific factors that influence spatial community or population dynamics are often elusive, and even less known is the impact of tropical urban landscapes on diverse species community assemblages. To address this knowledge gap, we used a survey data set with 510 fruit‐feeding butterflies comprising 20 species across two heterogeneous habitats within a city in Nigeria. Next, we constructed generalised linear mixed models to understand the differential responses of the butterfly community to changes in environmental conditions across habitats. Butterfly species community assemblages significantly differed between the two urban habitats, with butterfly species significantly higher in the savannah woodland compared with the gallery forest due to the optimal daily temperatures of the savannah woodland. However, butterfly richness was lower in the gallery forest due to extreme environmental conditions. This study highlights that butterfly community changes in tropical urban landscapes are possibly responding to local microclimates and spatial heterogeneity across habitats. For evidence‐based conservation management of tropical butterfly biodiversity, there would be need for a long‐term, extensive and systematic insect monitoring programme for butterflies across disturbed and undisturbed fragmented habitats harbouring diverse insect species.

Insect ecology and conservation in urban areas: An overview of knowledge and needs

“…Many works indicate a homogenisation and decrease in functional type, species diversity and/or insect abundance as urban density increases (in this SI see: Barao et al, 2024;Casanelles-Abella et al, 2024;Federico et al, 2024;Rivest & Kharouba, 2024;Sanetra et al, 2024;Svenningsen et al, 2024). This picture is, however, nuanced (e.g., Ancillotto & Rocco, 2024;Federico et al, 2024;Ombugadu et al, 2024) and although urban areas can detrimentally impact some insect taxa through the predominance of artificial environments, constrained habitats and disturbances, other taxa can adapt and thrive in the mosaic of semi-natural and novel environments, management variation and abundant resources (Curry et al, 2024;Hill et al, 2024;Nunes et al, 2024;Plummer et al, 2024;Xu et al, 2024).…”

“…Appropriate climate and temperature are crucial for all ectothermic organisms; accordingly, strong associations are reported between urban temperatures, the abundance and species richness of many taxa (Hansen et al, 2005) and the variability of phenotypes identified among populations dispersed along a gradient of urban intensity (Merckx, Kaiser, & Van Dyck, 2018;Merckx, Souffreau, et al, 2018;Ombugadu et al, 2024). These patterns are the outcomes of physiological (Hamblin et al, 2017) and metabolic (Chown & Duffy, 2015) opportunities and constraints, which shape individual life-history trait expression, phenological timing and may affect immunity (Merckx, Kaiser, & Van Dyck, 2018;Merckx, Souffreau, et al, 2018).…”

“…We both call for and encourage this. Of the 18 articles in this SI, almost half are from understudied regions, including the analysis of butterfly communities in urban Nigeria (Ombugadu et al, 2024) and both plantassociated arthropod communities and bee diversity in Brazilian cities (Barao et al, 2024;Pereira et al, 2024).…”