Butterfly diversity in different habitats in Simian Mountain Nature Reserve, China (Insecta: Lepidoptera)

Butterflies, as environmental indicators, can act as representatives for less well-monitored insect groups. In this study, a field survey was conducted in five fixed-distance belt transects during three years. Four indices were used to indicate the butterfly diversity. A total of 3004 individuals of 151 species belonging to 82 genera in 6 families were recorded in the survey. Among them, 67 species were recorded in Simian Mountain for the first time, and Celastrina argiolus (Linnaeus, 1758) was the dominant species; Nymphalidae was the dominant family. Among the five habitats, the species diversity of butterfly in Sample V was the highest, closely followed by that in Sample I in which ecological environment was relatively intact; and the diversity of butterfly in Sample IV, in which humaninterference was strong, was least. According to our research, the butterfly diversity in habitats with better ecological environments was higher; while the butterfly diversity in habitats with the most intact ecological environment was not the highest; strong human interference could significantly decrease the diversity of butterfly.