Butterfly diversity in agroforestry plantations of Eastern Ghats of southern Odisha, India

Agroforestry plays an important role in food security, sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. For understanding the role of agroforestry on biodiversity, a study was undertaken to access butterfly diversity in coffee, cashew and guava plantations in Eastern Ghats of southern Odisha during February–April 2016. A total of 1075 individuals of butterflies belonging to 60 species and 46 genera under five families were recorded during the study. Species richness (S) as well as Shannon diversity (H) were found to be higher in coffee (S = 45, H = 3.051) plantation, followed by cashew (S = 31, H = 2.807) and guava (S = 20, H = 2.519). However, though butterfly abundance was found to be maximum in coffee (43%), it was higher in guava (33%) followed by cashew (24%). Also, a significant difference was observed between butterfly abundance among three plantations. This shows coffee plantation was the best habitat for butterflies among the three agroforestry habitats studied. The reason for this was habitat heterogeneity in coffee plantation supporting maximum exclusive butterfly species and was least-human influenced with close canopy forest. Over all, family Nymphalidae was found to be the most abundant, and Lycaenidae was the least abundant. The findings of the present study are promising and may set new directions for management of agroforestry plantations in the region to support a rich biodiversity.