Butterfly Community Structure in Ziwuling Forest of Gansu Province and Its Environmental Correlates: A Focus on Sericinus montela

Butterflies are key components of biodiversity and sensitive indicators of environmental change. Ziwuling Forest is one of the essential biodiversity conservation areas in China. In this study, we investigated butterfly diversity and community structure across different habitats and months in Ziwuling Forest using the line transect method from May to September 2024. We also investigated the connection between the abundance of Sericinus montela Gray and environmental factors. A total of 2337 individuals were recorded across 84 species, 43 genera, and five families. The most frequent family was Nymphalidae, and the dominant species were Fabriciana adippe (Denis et Schiffermüller) and Gonepteryx mahaguru (Gistel). There were extremely high levels of variation in the butterfly diversity between habitats, with the highest diversity index observed in deciduous shrublands. Species richness, number of individuals and diversity index of butterflies varied statistically significantly higher in July as compared to any other month. The investigation of the relationship between the amount of S. montela and environmental conditions showed that altitude, precipitation, and temperature are the key factors that define the distribution of S. montela, and thus can serve as a reliable indicator of environmental change. Overall, this paper elucidates the structural features of butterfly communities of Ziwuling Forest in Gansu Province and the environmental flexibility of S. montela and thus provides sound reasoning to protect the diversity of butterfly communities and ecosystem management of the Loess Plateau.