Impact of land-use on butterflies in southwestern Burkina Faso

The butterfly fauna on cultivated, fallow and grazed land in southwestern Burkina Faso was compared using a transect method. Butterflies were sampled using visual, hand and trap net methods. Although more butterfly species were recorded in the cultivated lands, there were no statistical differences in the average number of species per transect among the different intensities of agricultural use. By contrast, abundance was highest in the cultivated fields with many common and widely distributed species. The abundance of species was more evenly distributed in the old fallow than in the other land-use types. Butterfly taxa differed in their response to land-use; some of these differences could be associated with a change in the flora. The sap-sucking nymphalids, in particular the Charaxes, were influenced by differences in land-use. There was a positive relationship between nymphalid abundance and woody canopy cover and between nymphalid and woody plant species numbers. Grazing intensity had little effect on the Charaxes fauna.