Diversity and Assessment of Butterflies in Marilog District, Davao City, Philippines

Butterflies are important biological and ecological indicators of a healthy environment. They also play a vital role in pollination of many economically important farm crops and forest trees. The study provided a checklist of butterflies in Marilog District, its diversity and ecological and local status. A combination of belt transect and opportunistic sampling were employed in four different sites of Marilog District which includes two forest ecosystems and two mountain ecosystems from months of March 2018 to November 2018. A total of 61 species of butterflies belonging to five families and 39 genera with a total of 497 individuals were recorded. Species diversity across four sites revealed site one (H’=1.47) had the highest species diversity, followed by site two (H’=1.35), site four (H’=1.254) and site three (H’=0.932) which had the lowest value. For endemism, site one had the highest number of endemic species (17) followed by site four (10 species), site two (nine species) and site three (five species). This data is important as it is a benchmark information on the diversity of butterflies in the area that documented endemic and rare species as a good basis for the protection and conservation of the remaining forested areas in Marilog District.

Keywords: Biodiversity, Lepidoptera, ecological status, local status, species richness