Sampling performance of bait traps in high Andean fruit-feeding butterflies

Abstract

ABSTRACT Studies on model organisms such as butterflies are useful tools for conservation decision-making. However, in tropical ecosystems with an intrinsic high diversity a full understanding of biotic communities is difficult to obtain. Bait trap samplings have traditionally been used for community appraisals related to ecological and conservation issues. Nonetheless, in the Andes Mountains, there is little knowledge related to the effectiveness of bait traps for butterfly sampling. In this study, we tested the success of fermented fruits and rotten fish baits for butterfly sampling in four land-cover types (páramo, cloud forests, mixed, and pasture) in the upper Rio Chico basin of the northern Central Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. A butterfly survey was conducted between 2011 and 2014, in an elevation range of 2650 to 3300 masl, within a total of 132 field days. Three sampling units for each land cover were established with four standard Van Someren-Rydon traps (VSR) per sampling unit. Traps were baited alternatively with fermented fruits and carrion (rotten fish). All 57 recorded species were captured using rotten fish, while approximately 65% (37 species) were collected from fermented fruit. Moreover, species richness was higher in all sampled land covers using rotten fish bait, but the dominant species in the land covers differed between baits. The rotten fish bait proved to be highly effective for butterfly sampling in páramo and cloud forest, although the combination of traps baited with fermented banana and rotten fish, allowed the collection of data suitable for comparison among all studied land cover.