Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea and Papilionoidea) from Universidade Federal de Santa Maria campus, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

This work aimed to investigate the composition, richness and diversity of butterflies from Universidade Federal de Santa Maria - UFSM, campus area of Camobi, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul. The field work was performed bimonthly from September 2005 to September 2006, with standardized effort of seven hours/entomological net/occasion. 872 individuals from 89 species were registred on 113 hours: 575 (65.9%) from Nymphalidae, 174 (19.9%) from Hesperiidae, 88 (10.1%) Pieridae, 21 (2.4%) Lycaenidae, 10 (1.2%) Papilionidae and four (0.5%) Riodinidae. 40 (44.9%) species were from Nymphalidae, 25 (28.1%) Hesperiidae, 11 (12.4%) Pieridae, 8 (8.9%) Lycaenidae, three (3.4%) Papilionidae and two (2.3%) Riodinidae. The five most abundant species from Camobi campus were Pyrgus orcus (Stoll, 1780) (N = 78) (Hesperiidae) and Nymphalidae Hermeuptychia hermes (Fabricius, 1775) (N = 70), Anartia amathea roeselia (Eschscholtz, 1821) (N = 55), Vanessa braziliensis (Moore, 1883) (N = 51) and Heliconius erato phyllis (Fabricius, 1775) (N = 51). Only H. hermes and V. braziliensis, typical from grasslands and open habitats, are not characteristic of disturbed environments. Previous studies registered 12 more butterfly species, raising local species richness to 101. Although strongly human impacted, the Camobi campus is still able to sustain an expressive butterfly fauna.