Jurnal Entomologi Indonesia

Keanekaragaman kupu-kupu dari Gunung  Salak, Indonesia. Penelitian mengenai kupu-kupu telah banyak dilakukan  di seluruh dunia, namun informasi basis data tentang kupu-kupu sangat  terbatas di Indonesia. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui spesies dari  komunitas kupu-kupu yang berada di hutan alam dan habitat sekitarnya di  areal Gunung Salak, Taman Nasional Gunung Halimun-Salak, Bogor, Jawa  Barat. Pengumpulan data ekologi dilakukan pada bulan September sampai  dengan Desember 2003. Survei kupu-kupu dilakukan dengan menggunakan  transek sepanjang 200 meter di lima lokasi terpilih yang berbeda. Survei  mengumpulkan 237 individu dari 28 spesies yang terdiri dari dari 4  famili. Famili yang paling sering dijumpai adalah Nymphalidae.  Pencatatan yang dilakukan menunjukkan bahwa Nymphalidae memiliki jumlah  species terbanyak dan kelimpahan individu tertinggi. Dalam tataran  species, Melanitis leda adalah spesies dengan kelimpahan  tertinggi. Penelitian lebih jauh diperlukan untuk menyediakan informasi  yang lebih lengkap tentang komunitas kupu-kupu di daerah ini. KEY WORDS: fbutterfly, natural forest, paddy field, species, transect

TABADEPU, HERI

BUCHORI, DAMAYANTI

SAHARI, BANDUNG

J. Entomol. Indon., April 2008, Vol. 5, No.1 , 10-16 
 
  10
Perhimpunan Entomologi Indonesia 
 
 
Butterfly Record from Salak Mountain, Indonesia 
HERI TABADEPU1), DAMAYANTI BUCHORI2), BANDUNG SAHARI1) 
1)Peka Indonesia Foundation (Wildlife Trust Alliance)  
2)
 Department of Plant Protection, Bogor Agricultural University 
(diterima Juni 2007, disetujui Januari 2008) 
ABSTRACT 
Keanekaragaman kupu-kupu dari Gunung Salak, Indonesia. Penelitian 
mengenai kupu-kupu telah banyak dilakukan di seluruh dunia, namun 
informasi basis data tentang kupu-kupu sangat terbatas di Indonesia. 
Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui spesies dari komunitas kupu-kupu yang 
berada di hutan alam dan habitat sekitarnya di areal Gunung Salak, Taman 
Nasional Gunung Halimun-Salak, Bogor, Jawa Barat. Pengumpulan data 
ekologi dilakukan pada bulan September sampai dengan Desember 2003. 
Survei kupu-kupu dilakukan dengan menggunakan transek sepanjang 200 
meter di lima lokasi terpilih yang berbeda. Survei mengumpulkan 237 
individu dari 28 spesies yang terdiri dari dari 4 famili. Famili yang paling 
sering dijumpai adalah Nymphalidae. Pencatatan yang dilakukan 
menunjukkan bahwa Nymphalidae memiliki jumlah species terbanyak dan 
kelimpahan individu tertinggi.  Dalam tataran species, Melanitis leda adalah 
spesies dengan kelimpahan tertinggi. Penelitian lebih jauh diperlukan untuk 
menyediakan informasi yang lebih lengkap tentang komunitas kupu-kupu di 
daerah ini.  
KEY WORDS: butterfly, natural forest, paddy field, species, transect 
 
 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
Tropical rainforests are known to 
harbor the highest diversity of 
organisms (e.g. Wilson 1988). This is 
also true for many groups of insects, 
for example parasitic wasps (Quicke 
1997), ants (Brühl 2001), moths (Beck 
& Schulze 2000; Beck et al. 2002) and 
butterflies (Schulze et al. 2004).  
Butterfly is a well studied insect taxon 
across the world since it is a sensitive 
insect group to habitat disturbance that 
plays a very important role in the 
ecosystem.   As tropical country, with 
thousand of islands, Indonesia is 
expected to be the home for many 
species of butterfly; however 
information on butterfly diversity and 
its database is very incomplete. 
Therefore further studies are needed to 
provide more information to determine 
the status of butterfly community in 
Indonesia.  
Some investigations have been 
conducted in several islands and 
provided valuable published 
information on several scientific 
journals including butterfly from 
Central Sulawesi (Schulze et al. 2004), 
East Kalimantan (Cleary & Grill 2004; 
Heri Tabadepu et al.,: Butterfly Record from Salak Mountain, Indonesia 
 11 
Charrete et al. 2006),  Bromo Tengger 
Semeru National Park (Suharto et al. 
2005) and Mount Tangkuban Perahu 
(Tati-Subahar et al. 2007).  Some 
project reports and books have also 
recorded butterfly species from a 
certain area such as butterfly from 
Button-Sulawesi (Wallace 2004; 
Winarni & Jones 2007), Bukit Barisan 
Selatan National Park (Nurhasanah et 
al. 2006), Papua (van Mastrigt & 
Rosariyanto 2005), Bogor Botanical 
Garden (Peggie & Amir 2006).  This 
information showed that there is 
substantially a significant progress of 
butterfly database development in 
Indonesia, however much studies are 
still required to capture more records 
of butterflies community inhabiting the 
risky remaining natural habitats.  Java 
is the most populated Island in 
Indonesia that is now suffering from 
vast conversion of natural ecosystem 
due to the increasing rate of land use 
change.  Since many butterfly species 
are susceptible to the type of 
environmental change and to the loss 
of their plant hosts, more 
investigations are needed to record 
species list of butterfly before their 
extinction precedes discovery by 
human.       
Salak Mountain is among the 
remaining natural ecosystem in Java 
that is now facing tremendous habitat 
destruction. Our work in this area was 
focused on exploring butterfly species 
inhabiting natural forest and 
surrounding habitats.  This study was 
the first survey to look at butterfly 
community living in and around the 
study area.  Here, we present a 
preliminary information on butterfly 
species list recorded by transect walk 
sampling. We believe that this would 
be valuable progress of butterfly 
investigation in Indonesia and would 
also enrich database information for 
consideration of conservation strategy 
of the study area.      
MATERIAL AND METHODS 
Study Area and Study Site 
Salak Mountain is located about 
two hours from the nearest city, Bogor 
and approximately four hours from the 
Capital City, Jakarta.  The size of the 
study area was about 31.237 ha 
covering two districts, Bogor (sub 
district Ciampea, Ciomas, 
Cibungbulan) and Sukabumi (Cicurug, 
Parung Kuda).  Previously, the study 
area was managed by Government 
state forest company (Perhutani).  
Rainfall was about 300 mm/month and 
temperature ranged between 21.2°C 
and 29.9° with mean of temperature 
was about C25.7°C (BMG 1997).   
Highest rainfall was occurred from 
November to May and highest altitude 
of the Mountain is about 2.211 m.   
Samplings were conducted at five 
different selected areas in and around 
Gunung Salak, Gunung Bunder (S: 
0,6°41’24,8’’ E ; 106°41’52,1’’), 
Ciapus (S ; 0,6°40’42,8’’E ; 
J. Entomol. Indon., April  2008, Vol. 5, No.1 , 10-16 
 12 
106°44’42,9’’), Cidahu (S ; 
0,6°43’51,8’’E ; 106°42’25,0’’), 
Jayanegara (S ; 0,6°46’14,0’’E ; 
106°38’15,3’’).   Insects were surveyed 
both in forest and paddy fields in the 
vicinity of the forest margin.  
Sampling 
Samplings were conducted 
between September and December 
2003. Insects were surveyed by using 
sweep net following transect walks 
along 200 m.  Butterflies were 
collected using a time-constrained area 
search during peak flight periods 
(09.00 to 15.00 hours).  Specimens that 
could not be designated to species in 
the field were caught with a sweep net 
and identified subsequently in the 
laboratory.  The surveys were 
restricted to condition where the 
weathers were most favorable for 
flight.  
Specimen Handling and Identification 
Butterflies caught from the field 
were then brought into laboratory for 
sorting and identification.  All 
specimens that were brought into the 
laboratory were handled and mounted 
using conventional procedures. Dry 
collections were made by exposing the 
specimen inside oven for three days.   
Identification was conducted by 
reffering to standart references 
including Morrel (1968), Tsukada 
(1981,1982,1985,1991).  
 
 
Data analyses 
Sorted and identified specimens 
were then compiled into MS Exell. 
Data was not analyzed using specific 
statistical tool.  Data was not 
statistically calculated instead of 
ecologically analyzed.  
 
RESULTS 
In total,  approximately 237 
individual belonging to 26  species and  
four families were recorded in and 
around Salak Mountain (24 species 
collected from forest, 13 species 
collected from paddy field, 11 species 
recorded from both forest and paddy 
field) by surveying five selected 
locations with two habitat types.  
Nymphalidae was the most abundant 
and species rich family, lowest number 
of individual and species was recorded 
from Papilionidae with only two 
singletone species (Graphium evemon 
and Papilio demolion).   Melanitis leda 
was the species frequentely found in 
Salak Mountain.  Cidahu  was recorded 
to be the most species rich than other 
selected locations (Gunung Bunder = 9 
species, Cidahu = 10 species, Ciapus = 
7 species, and Cisarua = 9 species).    
DISCUSSION 
Our work in Salak Mountain was 
intended to provide preliminary 
information on species list of butterfly 
community instead of measuring 
diversity. Therefore butterflies were 
surveyed by using only a single 
Heri Tabadepu et al.,: Butterfly Record from Salak Mountain, Indonesia 
 13 
Table 1. Species list of butterfly community inhabiting Salak Mountain (F= 
Forest, P=Paddy field)   
Family Species Gunung bunder Cidahu Jayanegara Ciapus Cisarua 
    F P F P F P F P F P 
Nymphalidae Lethe confusa 3 3 5 1 6 3 - - - - 
Nymphalidae Ypthima sp. 10 - - - - - - 1 9 3 
Nymphalidae Ideopsis sp. 1 - - - 1 - - - - - 
Nymphalidae Melanitis leda - 20 20 17 17 5 8 3 - - 
Nymphalidae Faunis canens - 1 3 2 2 - 4 1 - - 
Nymphalidae Taenaris sp. - - 3 - - - - - - - 
Nymphalidae Nimphalidae sp.1 - - 1 - - - - - - - 
Nymphalidae Nimphalidae sp.2 - - 1 - - - - - - - 
Nymphalidae Hypolimnas sp. 1 - - 1 1 1 - 2 - 2 - 
Nymphalidae Euploea mulciber - - - - 1 1 - - - 1 
Nymphalidae Cethosia sp. - - - - 1 - - - 1 - 
Nymphalidae Junonia sp. - - - 2 1 - - - 2 - 
Nymphalidae Mycalesis sp. - - - 2 - - 5 - - - 
Nymphalidae Hypolimnas sp. 2 - - - - - - - - 1 - 
Nymphalidae Charaxes polyxena - - - - - 1 - - - - 
Nymphalidae Danaus harina - - - - - 1 - - - - 
Papilionidae Graphium  evemon 1 - - - - - - - - - 
Papilionidae Papilio demolion - - 1 - - - - - - - 
Lycanidae Celastrina dilecta 3 - 2 - - - - - - - 
Lycanidae Jamines sp. 2 - - - - - - - - - 
Lycanidae Lycanidae sp.1 - - - - - - - - 6 - 
Lycanidae Arthopala sp. - - 5 - - - - - - - 
Pieridae Gandaca harina - 1 - - 7 1 4 - - - 
Pieridae Leptosia nina - 2 - - - 1 1 1 - - 
Pieridae Eurema hecabe 1 2 - - - 6 5 - 3 1 
Pieridae Cepora aspasis 1 - - - - - - - - - 
Total  22 29 42 25 37 19 29 5 24 5 
 
transect walk without replication.  Our 
discussion mostly emphasize on 
comparison of species richness of the 
study area and other regions in Java 
and other islands in Indonesia. Some 
studies from neighboring countries 
were also taken into account in this 
discussion.  Our preliminary survey on 
butterfly community has recorded only 
28 species from both forest and 
surrounding paddy fields.  This 
number is lower than butterfly 
community recorded in Bromo-
Tengger Semeru National Park that 
identified 31 species (Suharto et al.  
2005), but higher than butterfly record 
in Tangkuban Perahu, West Java  with 
only 23 species (Tati-Subahar et al. 
2007).   
Compared with butterfly record in 
East Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, 
Buton and Bukit Barisan Selatan, those 
numbers was significantly lower. 
Cleary & Grill  (2004) recorded 211 
species of butterfly community in East 
Kalimantan, even though the number 
J. Entomol. Indon., April  2008, Vol. 5, No.1 , 10-16 
 14 
then declined become 39 due to 
ENSO-induced forest fire.  
Approximately 185 species of 
Butterfly were recorded from Bukit 
Barisan Selatan National Park 
(Nurhasanah et al. 2006), 88 species 
from Central Sulawesi (Schulze et al. 
2004), 55 species from Buton Island 
(Wallace 2004) and 252 species from 
Papua (van Mastrigt & Rosariyanto 
2005, survey series between 2000 and 
2004).  Higher number of species 
richness was also recorded in several 
neighboring countries for example in 
Tioman Island, Peninsular Malaysia 
with 78 species (Quek et al. 1999), 
Makiling Mountain Philippines with 
145 species (Cayabyab 2000) and Ton 
Nga-Chang Wildlife Sanctuary, 
Thailand with 147 species (Boonvanno 
et al. 2000).  
By comparing those data, it seems 
that butterfly species in Java was 
significantly lower than other islands 
in Indonesia and several neighboring 
countries.   Lower number of butterfly 
species in Java may relate to several 
factors: (1) sampling efforts,  our work 
on Butterfly in Salak Mountain and 
Butterfly record in Bromo-Tengger-
Semeru (Suharto et al. 2005) only 
employed a single transect walk 
without replication.  In contrast, in 
other studies, sampling effort was 
higher that is expected to record more 
species number, (2) habitat destruction, 
Java is the most populated island in 
Indonesia where natural habitats are 
patchily distributed among modified 
ecosystems.  Higher rate of habitat 
conversion may result in butterfly loss.  
Comprehensive studies covering a 
wide variety of taxonomic groups 
clearly documented that generally 
forest modification and transformation 
to land-use systems have a negative 
effect on diversity and species richness 
(Lawton et al. 1998)  
 In our samples, Nymphalidae 
represented the most abundant and the 
most species family of Butterfly, in 
contrast Papilionidae was recorded to 
be very rare.  Similar pattern was also 
documented by Baltazar (1991) who 
recorded that Nymphalidae and 
Lycaenidae dominated butterfly 
community in Philippines, and the 
same result was confirmed by 
Boonvanno et al. (2000) in Thailand. 
Nymphalid butterflies are 
cosmopolitan with high number of 
species and individual distributed 
across many region of the world and 
inhabit various type of habitats.  Those 
butterflies are polyphagous insect that 
have high capability to survive 
(Primark 1998). Melanitis leda was the 
most abundant Nymphalid recorded 
from Salak Mountain.  This may be 
related its behaviour that feeds on 
various members of the grass family 
(van Mastrigt &Rosariyanto 2005).  
   
ACKNOWLEDMENT 
We thank to Chevron Corporate for 
research funding.  Grateful thanks are 
Heri Tabadepu et al.,: Butterfly Record from Salak Mountain, Indonesia 
 15 
due to the head of Gunung Halimun-
Salak National Park for research 
permit to access the research area and 
to Dr. Christian H Schulze for help in 
specimen identification   advanced 
thanks go to local community for help 
in collecting specimen in the field.     
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