Butterfly species richness and diversity in rural and urban areas of Sirajganj, Bangladesh

Abstract

An appraisal of butterfly species diversity study was conducted in four selected parts of Sirajganj District, Bangladesh, as a part of an ecological research. The study was conducted from March 2015 to April 2016. A total of 19,343 butterflies belonging to five families and 12 subfamilies was recorded. A random sampling of forest, riverside rural, and urban areas in Sirajganj District revealed the presence of 65 butterfly species, dominated by Lycaenidae (37%) over Nymphalidae (33%) followed by Pieridae (19%), Hesperiidae (7%), and Papilionidae (4%). Butterfly fauna in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Jamuna Ecopark (BJEP), compared with the percentage of other study sites, was very high (Hs= 4.03) and the percentage of hedge species was relatively higher (45%) than that of improved grassland and forest interior species. The relative abundance of the butterflies varied with the site, month, and family significantly. Considering the landscape of Sirajganj, steps to enhance riverside natural gardening should be adopted to maintain butterfly diversity and sustain the ecosystem services derived from them.

Addition of Colias fieldii Ménétriés, 1855 (Lepidoptera: Pieridae: Coliadinae) to the checklist of Lepidoptera of Bangladesh

“…Chowdhury & Hossain (2013) documented a photographic field guide with 225 species and expected that it might exceed 400 species, but the exact number is still unknown. Some other noticeable works appended the existing species checklist of butterfly species of Bangladesh (Rahman et al 2016;Neogi et al 2017;Dey et al 2020;Imam et al 2020;Paul et al 2021). A total of 13 genera under the family Pieridae (Catopsilia Huebner, 1819, Gandaca Moore, 1906, Eurema Huebner, 1819, Leptosia Huebner, 1818, Pieris Schrank, 1801, Pontia Fabricius, 1807, Ixias Huebner, 1819, Appias Huebner, 1819, Belenois Huebner, 1819, Cepora Billberg, 1820, Delias Huebner, 1819, Pareronia Bingham, 1907, Hebomoia Huebner, 1819 are recorded earlier from Bangladesh (IUCN Bangladesh 2015).…”