Abstract

HUGHES, Jennifer B.; DAILY, Gretchen C.  and  EHRLICH, Paul R.. Use of fruit bait traps for monitoring of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Rev. biol. trop [online]. 1998, vol.46, n.3, pp.697-704. ISSN 0034-7744.

There exists great interest in using fruit-feeding adult nymphalid butterflies to monitor changes in tropical forest ecosystems. We intensively sampled the butterfly fauna of mid-elevation tropical moist forest in southern Costa Rica with fruit bait traps to address a series of practical issues concerning the development of a robust, efficient sampling program. Variation in the number of captures and escapes of butterflies at the traps was better explained by the time of day than by the age of bait. Species’ escape rates varied widely, suggesting that short term, less intensive surveys aimed at determining presence or absence of species may be biased. Individuals did not appear to become "trap-happy" or to recognize the traps as food sources. Considering the tradeoff between numbers of traps and frequency of trap servicing, the most efficient sampling regime appears to be baiting and sampling the traps once every other day.

Keywords : butterfly trapping; Costa Rica; monitoring; Nymphalidae; tropical conservation.