Fragments of open- and closed-canopy habitat host significant fruit-feeding butterfly diversity in a large city in Southern India

Urban environments can host a wide variety of wild animals and plants, potentially contributing to conservation and facilitating city-dwellers’ contact with nature. However, we have limited knowledge about biodiversity in tropical cities, including butterfly diversity. To gauge the diversity, community composition, and temporal variation of butterflies in urban habitats, we sampled fruit-feeding butterflies (species that feed on fruit rather than flower nectar) in a large city in southern India. We performed longer-term sampling in two sites with mainly open habitats (fragments of rural landscape), and more modest sampling in two closed-canopy urban sites (semi-natural and agroforestry) and a nearby natural forest. We caught 3625 butterflies belonging to 29 species, of which seventeen species were recorded in the open habitats, and a further five species in the closed-canopy sites in the city. The natural site had the highest number of species. Also taking into account published data on another natural site in the wider region, about half of the region’s fruit-feeding butterfly fauna was recorded from the urban sites. The community composition differed significantly between the open- and closed-canopy sites. Notably, the open habitats in the city featured a protected species, and closed-canopy sites harboured charismatic forest species. There was extensive temporal variation in butterfly community composition that was partly seasonal. Overall, our results show that habitats within the city harbour a rich and valuable fruit-feeding butterfly diversity, and are thus worth conserving for nature education.