Yunnan has extraordinarily rich butterfly diversity

How many species there are on Earth is one of the cutting-edge scientific questions. The biodiversity background survey and annotated checklist in the mountains of Southwest China is one of the important strategic tasks for biodiversity conservation in China and Yunnan Province.

Yunnan is located at the intersection of three global biodiversity hotspots. Its peculiar geographic location, distinctive climate and complex environment have produced a wide variety of habitats, giving Yunnan an extraordinarily high and rich species count.

Insects are significant component of ecosystems, accounting for more than 60 percent of all animal species on Earth. However, records of known insect species in Yunnan are relatively sparse; therefore, a comprehensive and systematic investigation of insect diversity in Yunnan is necessary and urgent. As important biodiversity indicators, butterflies have received increasing attention from biologists and the general public.

To assess the insect diversity in Yunnan, the evolutionary genomics and gene origin research groups from the Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has conducted research on the diversity of butterfly species in Yunnan on the basis of long-term butterfly diversity evolution research and butterfly diversity observation. The scientific research team carried out a continuous survey of butterfly species and collected a large number of specimens from different habitats in Yunnan. They checked all collected butterfly specimens in KIZ and Kunming Zoological Museum, and also retrieved and reviewed relevant literature and the zoological record database.

Newly recorded species of the Yunnan checklist of butterflies

The team has completed a relatively comprehensive and reliable annotated checklist of butterflies, including 356 genera of six families and 1,300 species.

The results show that the number of butterfly genera and species in Yunnan accounts for about 79.8 percent and 58.6 percent of China’s total records, respectively, and reveal that Yunnan has perhaps China’s highest butterfly diversity. This updated checklist also reported two genera and 18 species newly recorded from China as well as 36 species first recorded from Yunnan.

This study improves the species information of Yunnan butterflies, and provides an important reference for Yunnan butterfly research and diversity conservation. It also suggests that species diversity for all insect fauna in Yunnan may be underestimated, and a more systematic survey of insects is essential to better assess the biodiversity of Yunnan.

Recently, related research results were published in Zoological Research under the title A glimpse into the biodiversity of insects in Yunnan: an updated and annotated checklist of the butterflies (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea).

Researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Science, the National Key Laboratory on Biosafety of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment participated in the study. The research work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department.

Source: Kunming Institute of Zoology,

Chinese Academy of Sciences