Butterflies, moths, and skippers comprise the order Lepidoptera (Greek lepis=scale, pteron=wing), insects with paired, scaled and membranous wings. With about 135 families and more than 112,000 species worldwide, Lepidoptera is the second largest insect order (Meyer, 2001).

The tropics, particularly South East Asia, is considered as the region with the highest butterfly and moth diversity in the world (Igarashi and Fukuda, 1997). In 1993, 1,674 of the known 100,000 lepidopteran species in the world were identified in the Philippines, 44% of which are indigenous to the country (Lamas, 2000). However, the Institute for the Conservation of World Biodiversity has identified the Philippines as the “hottest of the hotspots”, where the most speciose ecosystems are sacrificed to sustain an increasing demand for diversified land use (ICWB, 2000). As a result, depletion of resources and species interaction drives the mass extinction of endemic flora and fauna. This condition would ultimately minimize the ecological and economic benefits from lepidopterans.

In this study, the diversity of lepidopterans were surveyed within the University of the Philippines, Diliman Campus. Behavioral patterns, migration paths, and time – space relations of these species were also studied.

Download a pdf copy of our paper here (113 KB).

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