Studies On Conservation Biology Of Butterfly In Wuyunjie National Natrue Reserve

Biodiversity and conservation have been one of the key focuces in the world, and finding effective protections has beening a hotspot in biodiversity conservation. Butterfly is an important constituent part of biology resource, which has been suggested as potential indicator taxa to monitor ecosystems, habitat loss, non-native species invasion, fragmentation, and climate change. Investigation about resource and diversity of butterfly were common in our country, but studied on diversity and conservation using the way of conservation biology remained insufficient. In this paper, the speciece and community diversity of butterfly in Wuyunjie national nature reserve were reported, and conservation biology of endangered species were studied, and more effective strategies about protecting butterfly diversity were supplied. The purpose of the present study is to provide theorys for promoting biology resource protection and sustainable utilization.1. By using lines-transect method, the cloned Malaise trap, larvae feeding and picture collection, a series of investigations was conducted on the species diversity of butterfly in Wuyunjie national nature reserve Changde City of Hunan Province from June 2008 to April 2011. A total of 153 butterfly species were collected, belonging to 97 genera and 10 families, among which,4 species were nationally conserved species, and 3 species were new recorded form Hunan. Completed butterfly list and picture albums of Wuyunjie were established. Compared four national nature reserve with butterfly G-F diversity index, Wuyunjie was the third. The main fauna elements in this region are oriental.2. According to the collection data from 2008 to 2010, community diversity of butterfly with different seasons, habitates and evelations were studied. The numbers of butterflies and species richness were dominant in summer, and 10 families almost were found in the season. Species richness and diversity of butterfly in eight different habitate were compared, results showed that, all index in secondary forest was the higgest, and artificial reforestation was the next. Habitat complexity was the main factor effecting butterfly species richness in different habitat. Study on vertical distribution of butterflies showed, butterfly species richness and diversity indices decclined with increased altitude, but low altitude was not the area with higgest diversity indices. Then, the cloned Malaise trap used to investigate butterfly community diversity was discussed.3. The main influence factors on butterfly species richness, which included plant species richness (D), mean elevation (E), average distance from stream/river (F) and level of human interference (K) at 31 segment-level transects in 4 lines-transects, were analyzed by multiple regression. Meanwhile, we studied the community diversity of butterfly and its similarity in the experimental, buffer and core zones of the reserve. The multiple regression analysis showed that D, E, K were the three most major factors for the distribution of butterflies. Butterflies species richness had significant positive correlation with D (p<0.01) and negative correlation with E and K (p<0.05). Compared with each other among the three zones, core zone had higher species diversity and evenness index, the dominance index of experiment zone was highest and the similarity between the buffer and core zones get up a higher index to 0.526.4. The swallowtail butterfly Luehdorfia chinensis (Leech,1893) is endangered in China. Although its biological characteristics and habitat were reported more than twenty years ago, its conservation biology remained insufficiently known. In 2009, we discovered a population of the butterfly in Wuyunjie National Nature Reserve, Hunan, and preliminary data on the biology of this population was accumulated from March 2009 to April 2011, based on laboratory rearing and surveys in the field. Its life history was similar to those of the Zhejiang and Suzhou populations, and its habitat was on a slope around the mountaintop with its main host plant Asarum sieboldii. In Wuyunjie National Nature Reserve, human activities, such as cultivating and mowing are permitted to local residents to support the relationship between people and nature. Ruderal environments with sunlight and open spaces produced by moderate burning and mowing in the habitat may play important roles in maintenance of the population. Because suitable habitat of L. chinensis requires a comparatively open environment, logging high trees in the lowland may be necessary to sustain the Hunan population. Studies on the endangerment mechanism of the specie showed that:1) the starvation endurance ability increased with their growth stages, and the 5th instar larvae may survive for about 7 d respectively instavation.2) whether the temperature were low or high, the mortality rate were over 50%, and 1st instar larvae has stronger endurance ability to low and high temperature than other instar larvae.3) larvae survival rate increased with extended light period. Because the population was discovered in the reserve for the first time in March 2009, it is hard to indicate the state of endangerment of the population in the reserve at present and further investigation is needed. However, the results obtained from our preliminary surveys suggest that the population may be faced with danger from shortage of hostplant because of it being collected by local residents as a medicinal plant and loss of open habitat owing to overgrowth of shrubs and trees. Therefore, further attention should be paid to the Hunan population, and careful management is needed to integrate human needs with propagation of the butterfly in the future.5. Based on breeding in laboratory and surveying in field, the biological and ecological characteristics of the nationally conserved species Agehana elwesi (Leech,1889), were studied. It is an endemic and nationally endangered butterfly species in China, having two generations per year in South China and overwinters as pupa, with the hostplants Sassafras tzumu and Magnolia officinalis. Its larva has five instars which need 58-69 days to be mature, and the overwintering stage lasts 6-7 months. April to May and June to August are the time when they become adults. The biological and ecological characters were also described in details.