Morphological grouping of Mexican butterflies in relation to habitat association

Current rates of destruction of natural ecosystems call for rapid and effic ient ways of assessing the successional state or degree of perturbation, an d of monitoring management efforts. In this paper we propose that butterfly species, grouped by morphological and ethological traits, can be used for these purposes. The groups, each composed of species from many taxa, appear to be strongly correlated with types of habitat. We re-define the groups o riginally distinguished by de la Maza and de la Maza (1988), and, using dat a from Quintana Roo and Morelos states in Mexico, show a statistical associ ation between certain coloration groups and types of habitat. The existence of such consistent, non-taxonomic groupings is of theoretical interest and may also be used to monitor habitats or to predict the effects of disturba nce.