Diversity of butterflies in different Ecosystems related to Pitadeniya area of Sinharaja Forest

Abstract

The Sinharaja rainforest is the largest forest in Sri Lanka, having higher biological values and it is located in the Southwestern part in low country wet zone of Sri Lanka. Several natural forests in south western part were denominated as “Sinharaja” in the past and such forests as Dellawa, Walankanda, Warkalgoda, Diyadawa are now represented the Sinharaja complex. Butterflies are one of the beautiful groups of insects in forests like this, having a high biodiversity. In Sri Lanka about 245 butterfly species can be seen, and 26 species are endemic to Sri Lanka. About 65 species out of the all species can be seen in Sinharaja and a few of them are endemic to Sri Lanka. The key objective of this project is to study the diversity of butterflies in different ecological systems in Pitadeniya associated area of Sinharaja. Within the methodology of this study, primary and secondary sources were used in data collection and field observations were taken under primary sources. In here, data recording was done by observations of river basin areas, dense forests and home gardens. By the sides of the route, approximately 25 m away from the way is subjected to focus on direct observations for four times. Internet guidebooks were used under secondary sources. For data analysis, there were used the quantitative and qualitative methods and the descriptive method was used as qualitative method. Percentages and charts analysis were used under quantitative methods and also charts, tables, photographs and maps are used in presentation of data. Butterflies are abundant in river basins of the study area. Plenty of them there are identified as common species. In the dense forest, the butterfly population is low and similar population of the endemic butterfly species can be found there. In relation to Home gardens, in dense forests, the butterfly population became higher value. When considering about the diversity of the butterflies in the Sinharaja rainforest, there can be identified the spatial difference, which was changing according to the Ecological system. Similarly, it was identified that the size of the butterflies, their colours, Shapes, flight times are different from each other according to the ecosystems. It is concluded that the differences of spatial duration of the forest directly affect the changes of the behavior of the butterflies.