Butterfly Diversity And Conservation In Kon Ka Kinh National Park

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* Abstract

Kon Ka Kinh National Park belongs to Kon Tum Plateau and has high

value of diversity in Vietnam Forestry. Since the first survey in 1999, the butterflies

in Kon Ka Kinh is little known. We conducted the investigation to study their

butterfly population and factors affect butterfly distribution in a mountainous forest.

Pollard walk method with a hand-net method was used for observation. 323 species

were recorded, including 235 species in this survey. There were three new records

for Vietnam and three new records in Central Vietnam. Nymphalidae is the

dominating family. Our result indicated the impact of seasons, water resource,

elevation and forest type on butterfly diversity. Their diversity is higher in the rainy

season, where above ground water resource is highly available. The diversity

indexes also are higher at a lower elevation and disturbed forest area.

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I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1

1.1. Background ..................................................................................................... 1

1.2. Aims, scope, research question ...................................................................... 5

II. LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................... 6

2.1. Systematics. .................................................................................................... 6

2.2. Ecology and behaviors.................................................................................... 7

2.3. Butterflies as an indicator of environment ..................................................... 8

2.4. Factors influencing butterfly diversity .........................................................10

2.5. Butterfly conservation: .................................................................................12

III. MATERIAL AND METHODS ..........................................................................14

3.1. Study area......................................................................................................14

3.2. Transect selection: ........................................................................................17

3.3. Data collection: .............................................................................................18

3.4. Data analysis ................................................................................................. 19

IV. RESULTS ............................................................................................................21

4.1. Butterflies in Kon Ka Kinh National Park ...................................................21

4.1.1. The butterfly fauna.................................................................................21

4.1.2. Ecological complexes of tropical butterflies in Kon Ka Kinh N.P. .....23

4.1.3. Kon Ka Kinh butterfly in conservation .................................................24

4.1.4. New distribution records: ......................................................................25

4.1.5. Biogeographical features .......................................................................25

4.2. Butterfly indexes in Kon Ka Kinh National Park ........................................26

4.3. Factors influence to butterfly population distribution ................................. 28

V. DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................33

5.1. Butterfly fauna in Kon Ka Kinh National Park............................................33

5.2. Butterflies diversity along the transect .........................................................35

5.3. Factors impact to butterfly diversity: ...........................................................36

VI. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................38

VII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT .....................................................................................40

VIII. APPENDIX ...................................................................................................41

IX. REFERENCES ....................................................................................................53

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1:Kon Ka Kinh national park map ................................................................................ 15

Figure 2: Average Monthly Temperature and Rainfall............................................................. 16

Figure 3: Percentage of butterfly species in each family recorded in Kon Ka Kinh N.P.

(with and without consideration of species abundance) and entirely in Vietnam .................... 22

Figure 4: Taxonomical compositions of butterflies in Kon Ka Kinh N.P. ............................... 23

Figure 5: Percentage of common and forest butterfly species recorded ................................... 24

Figure 6: Correspondence analysis ........................................................................................... 29

Figure 7: Butterfly rarefaction curve for seasons ..................................................................... 30

Figure 8: Butterfly rarefaction curve based on water condition ............................................... 31

Figure 9: Rarefaction curves by forest types and altitude factors ............................................. 31

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1: List of endemic species in Kon Ka Kinh National Park ............................................. 26

Table 2: Butterfly diversity indices .......................................................................................... 28

Table 3: Diversity permutation test .......................................................................................... 28

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I. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background

Among invertebrate conservation group, the butterflies are among one of the

most popular focal groups. They are well known as indicators of tropical forest

ecosystems and their ecological condition. (Oostermeijer & Van Swaay, 1998).

Butterflies are a good group of insects for studying the effects of human activity. Under

pressure from population growth, the forest area is destroying to increase the

fragmentation and biodiversity loss.

A butterfly is a sensitive group with the changing of the environment

(Mecenero, 2015). In many representatives of this group, the specific characteristics of

coloration, wing pattern, and genital morphology may demonstrate biogeographical

information and provide useful parameters for studying the geographic variability of

species. Butterflies represent a suitable object for solving the problems related to the

specific features of geographic, landscape, seasonal, and climatic distribution of species

(A. Monastyrskii, 2007b). Among many reasons that could be named to justify the use

of this group as an object for solving the above problems, the following are most

important: (1) The butterfly taxonomy is well-developed (De Jong, Vane-Wright, &

Ackery, 1996; Rod & Ken, 1988); (2) They are present in practically all the known

tropical habitats of Vietnam (A. Monastyrskii & Holloway, 2013; A. L. Monastyrskii

& Devyatkin, 2015); (3) Their life cycle is often associated with specific host plants

and some other groups of insects and vertebrate animals. The changes in the vegetation

are always accompanied by the changes in the taxonomic composition of primary

consumers, including butterflies (Dover, 1996; Ehrlich & Raven, 1964); (4) Butterflies

can be easily observed and counted in nature, and can therefore be used for

demonstrating seasonal changes in abundance (Pollard, 1975; Pyle, Hughes, &

Institute, 1992); (5) The boundaries of distribution ranges of butterflies can be vertified

with a satisfactory degree of precision based on museum collections and illustrated

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guides; (6) In many representatives of this group, the specific traits of coloration, wing

pattern, and genital morphology provide the biogeographical information and provide

convenient parameters for studying the geographic variability of species (Benedick et

al., 2007; Dover, 1996; Gilbert & Singer, 1975)

During the last twenty years, butterflies have been successfully utilized by many

national and international programs for conservation activity as a perfect tool

supplementing the main methodology for the assessment of natural

resources(Bonebrake, Ponisio, Boggs, & Ehrlich, 2010; T. New, Pyle, Thomas,

Thomas, & Hammond, 1995; T. R. New, 1997). Practically nearly all conservation

projects implemented in Vietnam from 1993 have included butterfly study into

biodiversity research programs. These faunistic surveys showed a high level of

butterfly diversity and character of species distributions (A. Monastyrskii, 2007a; A. L.

Monastyrskii & Devyatkin, 2015). There were discovered a high number of species

which have been described as new to science. Many of these new species are endemics

to Vietnam and were found very locally (A. L. D. Monastyrskii, Alexey, 2000, 2012).

The majority of endemic species are characterized by restricted ranges and are located

in some topographically isolated mountain areas including mountain massifs of

Vietnamese central highlands: Central Truong Son Range; Kon Tum Plateau, and for

example, Kon Ka Kinh and Ngoc Linh national parks.

Kon Ka Kinh is an isolated mountain massif located in Gia Lai Province of Kon

Tum Plateau. It is situated within Endemic Bird Area and supports six restricted-range

bird species(Le, 2000). Kon Ka Kinh is also a globally important site for the

conservation of amphibian diversity. This area supports a number of amphibian

endemics (Tordoff, Tran, Nguyen, & Le, 2004). The National park also promotes a

high variety of insects, in particular butterflies. During the only two-months survey in

March/April 1999 conducted by BirdLife International, there were recorded over 200

butterfly species. Eight species collected at that time were previously unknown to

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science, and they have been described as new to science (A. L. Monastyrskii &

Devyatkin, 2015). Unfortunately, since 1999 there were no additional organized

surveys that may be extended our knowledge on faunistic, biogeographic, ecological

and conservation aspects of this topographically isolated area

In French colonial times (before 1945), the forests here were not exploited or

impacted. Roads and vehicles were not in good conditions, so forest products could not

be transported to the market. In 1964, American troops landed in the National Park

area. They occupied and developed military bases on many hills. They exploited and

depleted around 1000 hectares of primary forests for different purposes (Le, 2000).

Following the Birdlife report (Le, 2000), in 1980, the Mang Yang forestry

company was established and managed the forest in the region. During this time, the

main task of the company was logging. Each year, the company harvested

approximately 15,000-20,000 m3

. Exploitation is carried out from this area to other

areas. An activity of forest logging has gravely affected and depleted the forest

resources. The majority of secondary forests today are a consequence of this period.

Besides these activities, illegal logging also occurred. This contributed significantly to

forest degradation in Kon Ka Kinh forest.

In 2002, Kon Ka Kinh National Park was established. The logging activities

have been prohibited completely. Instead of logging, forest protection, reforestation,

enrichment planting, and restoration activities have been promoted. However, illegal

logging has still occurred in some remote places with fewer forest rangers and larger

trees. During this time, forest resources have also been affected by the activities of the

local people as farming, grazing, harvesting of forest products such as honey, orchids

and so on.

Kon Ka Kinh forms part of a contiguous landscape of natural habitats in north￾eastern Gia Lai province which supports some of the most intact faunal and floral

communities in the central Truong Son. The Park maintains a range of montane habitat