Abstract
We analysed the influence of contemporary geography on butterfly diversity for islands in the Mediterranean Basin. We found that island size and distance from the mainland has a significant effect on the number of species. We also used butterflies as an indicator group to identify the importance of forest habitats for biodiversity conservation in the island of Cyprus. To understand the relative importance of local vegetation characteristics of butterflies in the Pentadaktylos mountains transect counts were used to assess the abundance and butterfly diversity in two different forest types. A total of 1,602 butterflies and 23 species were recorded during this research. We observed highly significant effects of forest type on abundance and species richness of butterflies. For example, number of butterflies was significantly higher in old forest than young pine forest. Also, the abundance of endemic butterflies was highest in old forest habitats. Therefore, the survival of the majority of endemic butterflies in Cyprus may depend on conservation of old forests and their understorey plants.
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Acknowledgements
This research project has been supported with a grant from the Bi-communal Development Programme, which is funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the European Social Fund (funding to DJH). The authors thank UNDP and USAID for their financial support, to Christodoulos Makris, Eddie John and Roger L. H. Dennis for the supply of useful literature, the North Cyprus Department of Forestry in Lefkosa for providing transportation during the surveys and to Mustafa Kemal Merakli for the identification of some plant species. This manuscript has been signifıcantly improved by the comments of reviewers.
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Özden, Ö., Ciesla, W.M., Fuller, W.J. et al. Butterfly diversity in Mediterranean islands and in Pentadaktylos Pinus brutia forests of Cyprus. Biodivers Conserv 17, 2821–2832 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-008-9382-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-008-9382-8