Diversity and seasonal occurance of Butterflies at Kisan P.G. College, Simbhaoli, Hapur, Uttar Pradesh (India)

Abstract

Kisan P.G. College, Simbhaoli, Hapur, contains a large quantity of green spaces. Kisan P.G. College Simbhaoli with its plant diversity in the form of small grassland, scrubland and some dense green belt area provide good habitat for butterfly’s species. Moving vehicles cause heavy metal toxicity, and high sulphur dioxide in the air is particular harmful to butterflies. During smog episodes, the caterpillar mortality was very high and only a few to survive to turn into full-fledged butterflies. People are happy because the brightly coloured flyers are flourishing in the lockdown period. With the pollution load dropping due to lockdown, butterflies seem to be doing extremely well. Butterflies have a shorter life, so it wasn’t easy to determine the effect of lockdown in the beginning, but over the weeks, it is evident that the butterfly populations have gone up dramatically. They may have been aided by stoppage in human activity. The present study was carried out to assess the Butterfly diversity from 1 February 2019 to 31 December 2020 by applying standard technique. During the study period, a total of 53 species of butterflies belonging to 5 families were observed.