Mohamad Fairus B. Jalil (2000) The potential of fruit feeding Nymphalid butterflies (Papiliondea: Nymphalidae) as biological indicators for forest quality. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sabah.
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Abstract
A study on fruit feeding Nymphalid butterflies at two sites (Deramakot Forest Reserve and Danum Valley Conservation Area) in Southeastern Sabah yielded 41 species over a period of two years. This study was used to evaluate the potential of the butterflies as indicator species to detect habitat degradation. In this study, the primary forest of Danum Valley Conservation Area acted as a comparative site to the secondary forest of Deramakot Forest Reserve. Three sites with different logging histories were compared with one site in Danum Valley Conservation Area. The parameters studied were the butterfly diversity (species richness, species diversity and evenness) and their faunal similarity. Tests-of-fitness on abundance model were also carried out. A test on the effectiveness of bait trapping for gathering species was also carried out. Estimators of four different kinds (ACE, ICE, Chao2 & MMMeans) were tested to evaluate the rate of species accumulation by bait trapping. Results showed that, at all sites, the studied community matched the log-series and lognormal distribution. Number of species and individuals recorded during the study also had the same positive relation with habitat quality. The diversity parameters a and A were also positively related with habitat quality. The Shannon-Wiener index H' and Simpson, D, also had similar trends. The values decreased in more disturbed habitats. The use of similarity as estimates of ,8-diversity showed that all communities had similar species compositions even though there was difference in abundance relationship. Of various estimators of "total" species richness tested, MichaelisMenten Means (MM Means) generated the most reasonable of all species richness values. All the estimators provided similar trends to the observed species richness and this study also showed that bait trapping is highly reliable as more than 80% of the species estimates by the estimators have been collected during the study period. Collectively, these results demonstrated that recording fruit feeding Nymphalid butterflies provided data suitable for diversity assessment, however, a more rigorous study must be carried out before any conclusion can be made.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Keyword: | Nymphalidae, Butterfly diversity, Indicator species, Habitat degradation, Primary forest |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QL Zoology > QL1-991 Zoology > QL360-599.82 Invertebrates > QL461-599.82 Insects |
| Department: | SCHOOL > School of Science and Technology |
| Depositing User: | DG MASNIAH AHMAD - |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Sep 2025 17:02 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Sep 2025 17:02 |
| URI: | https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/45190 |
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