Butterfly Fauna of Catanduanes Island, Philippines: New locality records (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera)

Publisher: Bicol University PDF

Abstract

A four-year inventory of butterfly species in Catanduanes Island is presented in this paper with new locality records. Photographs of butterflies reported by citizen scientists to the Philippine Lepidoptera Butterflies and Moths Inc. and Catanduanes Biodiversity from May 2016 to December 2020 were compiled to generate an updated species list of the butterflies present on the island. A total of 134 species of butterflies were recorded belonging to five families and 95 genera. Butterfly species in the family Nymphalidae are the most speciose (37%), while Papilionidae scores the least (9%). Of the 134 species, 32 or 24% are endemic, including the Catanduanes endemic subspecies Ragadia luzonia obscura and Pachliopta kotzebuea calataganensis. Catanduanes Island, despite being a small island still hosts a high number of endemic species, and 75 species recorded during the inventory were new locality records. These updated data about the butterfly composition and new butterfly localities in Catanduanes are useful in the possible identification and declaration of additional protected areas or conservation sites on the island.