Status of butterfly fauna (Order: Lepidoptera) in the summer season at Lucknow Zoo (Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Zoological Garden), U.P., India (original) (raw)

The extant study was carried out to provide a baseline data of butterfly diversity during month of June 2020 to November 2020, in Butterfly park of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Zoological Garden, Lucknow, India. Due to large scale of habitat fragmentation, Urbanization, irrational agricultural practices, most of the butterfly species are on the verge of endangered condition. In this scenario, Butterfly gardens assist to increase the species abundance, and through proper selection of host plants and refurbishment of habitats, a diverse assemblage of butterflies could be sustained even in urban areas. In this context the role of butterfly gardens in the conservation of butterfly diversity was studied in which, total 58 species of butterflies belonging to 44 genera and five families were recorded from the survey. From the observed butterflies, family Nymphalidae was the most dominant among the five families with 20 species, followed by Lycaenidae comprising of 16 species, Hesperiidae with 2 species, Pieridae with 13 species and Papilionidae with 7 species. Among these 58 species, 5 species were found to be protected under the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, (1972).