Spatial occurrence records and distributions of tropical Asian butterflies
Insect biogeography is poorly documented globally, particularly in the tropics. Recent intensive research in tropical Asia, combined with increasingly available records from citizen science, provides an opportunity to map the distributions of tropical Asian butterflies. We compiled a dataset of 730,190 occurrences of 3,752 tropical Asian butterfly species by aggregating records from GBIF (651,285 records), published literature (27,217), published databases (37,695), and unpublished data (13,993). Here, we present this dataset and single-species distribution maps of 1,576 species. Using these maps, along with records of the 2,176 remaining species, we identified areas of limited sampling (e.g., Myanmar and New Guinea) and predicted areas of high diversity (Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo). This dataset can be leveraged for a range of studies on Asian and tropical butterflies, including 1) species biogeography, 2) sampling prioritization to fill gaps, 3) biodiversity hotspot mapping, and 4) conservation evaluation and planning. We encourage the continued development of this dataset and the associated code as a tool for the conservation of tropical Asian insects.
Authors
- Krushnamegh K. Kunte (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3860-6118)
- E. Eirian Jones (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1879-4537)
- Tiffany L. T. Ki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4389-5097)
- Timothy C. Bonebrake (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9999-2254)
- Lien Van Vu
- Jade Aster T. Badon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0529-0778)
- Shawan Chowdhury (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2936-5786)
- Shuang Xing (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5956-6904)
- Toby P. N. Tsang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8176-7777)
- Cheong Weei Gan
- A. Lee
- Jane K. Hill (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1871-7715)
- David J. Lohman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0689-2906)
- Akihiro Nakamura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7349-5102)
- Sarah A. Scriven (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0505-5425)
- Yves Basset (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-5717)
- Suzan Benedick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2587-3644)
- Anuj Jain (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9837-4163)
- Richard T. Corlett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2508-9465)
- Eugene Yu Hin Yau
- Patrick R. Roehrdanz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4047-5011)
- Catherine Wai Ching Hai
Institutions
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (IN)
- University of the Philippines Los Baños (PH)
- City College of New York (US)
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (PA)
- National Museum of the Philippines (PH)
- Conservation International (US)
- Natural History Museum (GB)
- Sun Yat-sen University (CN)
- Universiti of Malaysia Sabah (MY)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- City University of New York (US)
- National Centre for Biological Sciences (IN)
- Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZ)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Scarborough Health Network (CA)
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (GB)
- Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (CN)
- Biotronik (Singapore) (SG)
- Institute for Biodiversity (DE)
- University of York (GB)
- Monash University (AU)
- Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VN)
- Singapore Management University (SG)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- National Cheng Kung University (TW)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Scientific Data
- Published
- 2025-06-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05333-w
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.51
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- University of Hong Kong
- U.S. Geological Survey