The butterflies of Ngazidja and their main habitats significances

Paper Details

Research Paper 01/12/2015
Views (222) Download (11)
current_issue_feature_image
publication_file

The butterflies of Ngazidja and their main habitats significances

Hamada Chakira, Ali Mohamed Ely-amine, Luca Pietro Casacci, Ahmed Ouledi, Tufail Ahmed Wagan, Juma Mabubu, Hong Xia Hua, Yue Ping He, Emilio Balletto
J. Bio. Env. Sci.7( 6), 127-140, December 2015.
Certificate: JBES 2015 [Generate Certificate]

Abstract

Ngazidja, the biggest island of Comoros, is characterized by the higher level of endemism that is threatened by the rapid habitat degradation. This study was carried out to investigate the butterfly fauna of the forests of the Karthala (North and North-eastern slopes) and La Grille (Eastern slopes) in order to help the biodiversity conservation and protection. Transect counts were carried out to assess the endemicity, abundance and species richness of four zones of studies from 500m elevation. Natural forest, regenerated forest, plantation and grasslands were covered. 48 species in 5 families were observed and the distribution demonstrated to be influenced by the sites’ elevation and the vegetation. The remains slots of natural forest at higher altitude shelters had higher abundance of endemicity but lower specific richness in contrast to plantation habitat that housing the biggest number of endemic species with lower abundance. Relatively common and migratory butterflies were mainly abundant in the open areas, where human activities intended to increase the variety of plants. The long term survival of this fauna and vegetation depends on one another. We argue that it is proper time to set long-time plans to conserve and protect areas of Comoro islands into action, with conservation strategies taking account the global endemicity and richness in all habitats.

VIEWS 8

Adjanohun EJ, Aké Assi L, Ahmed A, Eimé J, Guinko S, Kayonga A, Keita A, Lebras, M. eds. 1982. “Contribution aux etudes ethnobotaniques et floristiques aux Comores”. ACCT, Paris 217p.

Andiliyat MA. 2007. Ecological study of Karthala forest (Ngazidja) ethnobotanic, typology, natural regeneration, spatio-temporal evolution and determination of potential site of conservation, Dissertation, University of Antananarivo, Antananarivo 89p.

Battistini R, Verin P. 1984. Geographie des Comores. Annales de géographie 96, 533,135p

Bernardi G. 1996. Biogeography and speciation of lepidoptera papilionidae, pieridae, danaidae and acraeidae de madagascar and neighbours islands. In: w.r. Lourenço (éd.)Editions de I’ORSTOM, Paris 491-506.

Bhardwaj M, Uniyal VP, Sanyal AK, Singh AP. 2012. Butterfly communities along an elevational gradient in the Tons valley, Western Himalayas: Implications of rapid assessment for insect conservation. Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology 15, 207-217.

Bray JR, Curtis JT. 1957. An ordination upland forest communities of southern Wisconsin. Ecological Monographs 27, 325-349

Chambrin MH, BraunT, Quillien R. 2013. Les inondations d’avril 2012 à Ngazidja (Union des Comores)-Etat des lieux, diagnostic et perspectives, Seine-San-Denis/Le departement,41p.

Clarke KR, Gorley RN. 2006. PRIMER v6: User Manual/Tutorial. PRIMER-E, Plymouth 192p.

Collins NM, Morris MG. 1985. Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies ofthe World. The lUCN Red Data Book, lUCN, Gland and Cambridge. viH- I- 8-pis 401p.

Daily GC. 2003. Time to rethink conservation strategy. Science 300, 1508-1509.

DEF. 2009. Appui au Programme forestier national. (D. o. e. a. forest, ed.) 1-45.

DGSC. 2012. Inondations d’avril 2012: Plan de relevement precoce 1-47.

ECDD, BCSF, Durrell. 2014. Terrestrial Biodiversity Mapping of the Comoros Islands: Methods and Results.www.ecddcomoros.org.

Ehrlich PR, Raven PH. 1964. Butterflies and plants: a study in coevolution. Evolution 586-608.

François D. 1987. R. Battistini et P. Vérin, Géographie des Comores. Annales de Géographie 135-135.

Jonason D, Andersson GKS, O¨ckinger E, Rundlo M, Smith HG, Bengtsson J. 2011. Assessing the effect of the time since transition to organic farming on plants and butterflies. Journal of Applied Ecology 48, 543-550.

Kendle T, Forbes S. 1997. Urban nature conservation. E & FN Spon, London 54p.

Koh LP, Sodhi NS. 2004. Importance of reserves, fragments, and parks for butterfly conservation in a tropical urban landscape Ecological Applications 14, 1695-1708.

Kwon TS, Kim SS, Lee CM, Jung SJ. 2013. Changes of butterfly communities after forest fire. Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology 16, 361-367.

Lewis OT, Wilson RJ, Harper MC. 1998. Endemic butterflies on Grande Comore: habitat preferences and conservation priorities. Biological Conservation 85, 113-121.

Louette M, Meirte D, Jocqué R. 2004. “La faune terrestre de l’archipel des Comores. ” Studies in Afrotropical Zoology 293, 456 p.

Louette M, Stevens J. 1992. Conserving the endemic birds on the Comoro Islands, I: general considerations on survival prospects. Bird Conservation International 2, 61-80.

Marsh CJ, Lewis OT, Said I, Ewers RM. 2010. Community-level diversity modelling of birds and butterflies on Anjouan, Comoros Islands. Biological Conservation 143, 1364-1374.

Miller JR, Hobbs RJ. 2002. Conservation where people live and work. Conservation biology 16, 330-337.

MPE. 2001. ARRETE N° 01/031 /MPE/CAB portant protection des espèces de faune et flore sauvages des Comores 1- 4.

Myers N, Mittermeier RA, Mittermeier CG, da Fonseca GAB, Kent J. 2000. Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities Nature 403, 853-858.

Ota M, Yuma M, Mitsuo Y, Togo Y. 2014. Beak marks on the wings of butterflies and predation pressure in the field. Entomological Science 17, 371-375.

RFIC. 1994 “National Environmental Policy “, Comoros, 1-24.

Shields O. 1989. World numbers of butterflies. J. Lepid. Soc 43, 178-183.

Thomas J. 2005. Monitoring change in the abundance and distribution of insects using butterflies and other indicator groups. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 360, 339-357.

Todisco V, Gratton P, Cesaroni D, Sbordoni V. 2010. Phylogeography of Parnassius apollo: hints on taxonomy and conservation of a vulnerable glacial butterfly invader. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 101, 169-183.

U-N . 1992. Convention on biological diversity 28p.

Union des Comores. 2008. Colloque international sur le Karthallah. Rapport nationale 78p.

Union des Comores. 2009. Quatrieme rapport nationale sur la diversité biologique 104p.

Union-des-Comores. 2014. “5ème rapport national sur la diversite biologique 55p.

Van Swaay C, Brereton T, Kirkland P, Warren M.  2012.  “Manual  for  Butterfly  Monitoring,”  De Vlinderstichting/Dutch Butterfly Conservation, Butterfly Conservation UK & Butterfly Conservation Europe, Wageningen, Report VS 2012.010 12p.

Van Swaay C, van Strien A, Harpke A, Fontaine B, Stefanescu C, David R, Õunap E, Regan E, Švitra G, Heliölä J, Settele J, Pettersson L, Botham M, Musche M, Titeux N, Cornish N, Leopold P, Julliard R, Verovnik R, Öberg S, Popov S, Goloshchapova S, Roth T, Brereton T, Warren M. 2013. The European Grassland Butterfly Indicator: 1990–2011,” European Environment Agency , Technical report, NO11, 33p.

Viette P. 1980. Mission lepidopterologique a la Grande Comore (Ocean Indien occidental). Bulletin de la Societe Entomologique de France 85, 226-235.

Vu VL. 2013. The effct of habitat disturbance and altitudes on the diversity of butterfly (Lepidoptera Rhopalocera) in a troical forest of Vietnam:result of a long term and a large-scale study. Russian Entomol. J 22, 51-56.

Youssouf A. 2012. Etude d’inventaire des espèces ligneuses endemiques des comores : Cas du massif de la grille, Diplôme de master, Université des Comores, 63p.

Zavaleta  ES,  Hobbs  RJ,  Mooney  HA.  2001. Viewing  invasive  species  removal  in  a  whole-ecosystem context. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 16, 454-459.