Butterfly Species List for Selected West Albertine Rift Forests

This dataset gives details on a study which was conducted in seventeen forests in western Uganda (Albertine region) between 1993 and 1995. Different methods were used to sample butterflies from these forests. A total of 630 butterfly species were collected in 5 main families. Key characteristics of the forests were recorded, and these were found to influence the butterfly species richness of the forests. 1. Introduction Butterflies are known to respond to environmental changes, and there have been considerable amounts of data collected on how particular species contend with alteration in land use [1, 2] and thus may play a valuable role in ecological monitoring [3]. In Uganda, some 1245 species of butterflies have been recorded [4] from a variety of habitats, and it is thus feasible to evaluate the butterfly fauna of the region as well as derive reasonably accurate comparisons of sites and subsequently identify conservation requirements. This dataset paper examines the butterfly species diversity and distribution in selected West Albertine Rift Forests. 2. Methodology This study was based on secondary data collected by the former Forest Department, now National Forestry Authority (NFA), over a period of three years from January 1993 to December 1995 as part of a National Forestry Biodiversity in seventeen forests (see [5]). For the purposes of this study, West Albertine Rift Forests were taken to be those found within the geographical boundaries north of Lake Albert between Arua and Pakwach (West Nile) and the forests of western Uganda (Figure 1). Figure 1: Forests of the WARFs whose butterfly fauna was studied (adopted from [ 5]). NP: National Park; FR: Forest Reserve. Twelve fine-mesh cylindrical traps (approximately 70 × 40？cm diameter) were set at a range of heights from 1 to 10？m above ground level for the duration of the survey. A variety of baits including fermenting banana, dog feces, chicken offal, urine, and locally distilled alcohol were used in the traps. Traps were checked regularly, and representative specimens of each species were collected. For those species not usually attracted to traps, sweep netting was carried out daily in a range of habitat types within the forests. The average sampling efforts for each forest were measured in terms of man-days and the different forests’ characteristics recorded (Table 1). Secondary data on the ecological attributes of interest (forest size, altitude, plant species richness, rainfall, and temperature) and the human activities in the forests recorded by the Forest Department were used to generate