A comparison of butterfly diversity and their distribution in different habitat types near the capital city, Itanagar, Eastern Himalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, India

To record and compare the butterfly diversity composition of different habitats, i.e., Wetland, Riverine and Terrestrial habitats near the capital city, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, were surveyed every month from December 2019 to November 2020. Total 156 species referable to 96 genera and 6 families, viz. Papilionidae, Nymphalidae, Pieridae, Lycaenidae, Riodinidae and Hesperiidae were recorded from all three habitats. Family wise analysis of the number of butterflies species in all the three habitats indicates that the family Nymphalidae was with maximum number of species (75 species, 48%), followed by Lycaenidae (32 species, 20%), Hesperiidae (22 species, 14%), Pieridae (15 species, 10%), Papilionidae (11 species, 7%) and Riodinidae (1 species, 1%). The highest number of species was recorded from Wetland habitat (126 species), Terrestrial habitat (109 species) and the least from Riverine habitat (70 species).