Butterflies respond to habitat disturbance in tropical forests through activity shifts

Habitat disturbance can alter the dynamics of the forest microclimate by disrupting the canopy structure, particularly in structurally complex tropical forests. These changes may impact ectotherms, whose performance and fitness are highly sensitive to climatic conditions. Behavioural responses, such as changes in activities, may help buffer forest ectotherms like butterflies from microclimate changes in disturbed tropical forests. Using field surveys from four tropical forest sites in Asia, we compared flight activity peaks, durations, and intensity for populations of 21 forest-associated butterfly species between open-canopy and closed-canopy forests. We then compared the temperature and illumination that each species experienced during its activity period between the two forest types.  Although butterfly populations began their activity earlier and reached peak levels sooner in open-canopy forests compared to closed-canopy forests, the duration and intensity of activity remained ..., , # Butterflies respond to habitat disturbance in tropical forests through activity shifts

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.prr4xgxzc](10.5061/dryad.prr4xgxzc)

## Description of the data and file structure

We surveyed butterflies in each location when adult butterflies were most abundant. We conducted surveys on sunny and windless days. In each study site, two experienced observers recorded butterfly species and abundance using adjusted Pollard walks (30 min at a constant pace, recording butterflies encountered within 5 m of established transects; Basset et al., 2013) at each transect every hour from morning (about half to one hour after sunrise) to dusk (about half to one hour before sunset). At each site, butterfly observers were the same and were randomly switched between forest types or surveys to minimize bias caused by different observers. We recorded the presence of active (displayed flying, feeding, mud puddling, territorial behaviour, mating and ovipositing) butterfly individuals d...,