INTRODUCTION
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).
© 2002-2003 Group 1
Bio 160 Lab (Fundamentals of Ecology)
Institute of Biology, University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City 1100