THE EFFECTS OF DISTURBANCE ON FOREST BUTTERFLIES USING 2 METHODS OF SAMPLING IN TRINIDAD

The butterfly assemblages of pairs of forest habitats, differing in di sturbance level, within the Victoria Mayaro reserve of South-East Trin idad, are described using walk-and-count transects and canopy and unde rstorey fruit traps. The concurrent use of these two butterfly censusi ng techniques, revealed major but conflicting differences in species a ccumulation rates under different disturbance conditions. The disturbe d evergreen habitat had the significantly highest accumulation rate fr om walk-and-count data but the significantly lowest from fruit trap da ta. This reflects the specificity of much of the fruit-feeding guild f or closed canopy forest. Disturbed habitats were found to lack a disti nct canopy fauna. These results are discussed In light of the intermed iate disturbance hypothesis. Within a region of forest, butterflies we re found to be more characteristic of a disturbance level than of a pa rticular forest type, lending weight to the belief that butterfly faun as can be used as bioindicators of forest disturbance. Several restric ted geographic range species were not adversely affected by forest dis turbance, at these levels of disturbance. The butterfly censuses in th is study suggest that the optimal strategy for safeguarding butterfly species richness under natural forest management regimes would be to m aintain a mosaic of habitats that included areas of undisturbed primar y forest and a network of other forest patches, that varied in managem ent regime and level of disturbance.