Effect of Temperature on Butterfly Community (Lepidoptera) at Gunung Meja Recreational Forest Area, Manokwari, Papua Barat

Abstract

Gunung Meja is one of the forest areas in Manokwari, West Papua province. It has been designated as a recreational forest since 1980. Gunung Meja covers 460.25 ha and is located at 75–175 m a.s.l. Gunung Meja is directly adjacent to residential areas, therefore the community activities, such as felling trees and gardening, was conducted in the area frequently. These can interfered the existence of flora and fauna in the area, included butterflies. To reveal the impact of intrusive human activities on the forest area, it was necessary to obtain basic information about what flora and fauna are present there. This study was aim to record the butterfly community in the area. Observations of butterflies were done by scan sampling on primary forest, secondary forest, gardens and settlements. Sampling and measurement of environmental parameters were performed in the morning and afternoon for seven weeks. This study recorded 113 species and 4.049 individuals of butterflies. There were 75 species in primary forest, 77 species in secondary forest, and 63 species in gardens and settlements. The number of species found was still increasing until the last day of the observation. Shannon-Wiener index (H’) calculation showed that diversity in primary and secondary forests were 3.48 and 3.50, respectively, thusclassified as high (H’ > 3). Sorensen index calculation (C) showed high value reaching 0.5 quantitatively. The numbers of butterflies both species number and individual number, observed in the morning were higher than those in the afternoon. There wassignificant effect (P < 0.05) of temperature on the number of individual butterflies. The result of PCA analysis showed that the environmental parameters in primary forest, secondary forest, gardens and settlements influenced the number of species and number of individuals.