Assessment of changes in diversity of butterfly at University of Ibadan using field and museum collections

Butterflies are associated with different habitats and their presence, absence and numbers can be used to study ecological change. In western Nigeria, butterflies of intact forest are becoming scarce due to constructions and are being replaced by those capable of living in disturbed areas. To understand the land-use changes at the University of Ibadan, a rapid assessment of change in butterfly richness was carried out using field survey and museum collections. The survey began from the Agric Biology Department to Botanical Garden within the campus by opportunistic visual encounter. A total of 30 butterfly species observed in the survey were compared to 200 butterfly species in the Insect Museum in the Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology. By summation of status, butterflies observed in the Insect Museum had a total of 693 status score while those recorded from the field in the University of Ibadan had 46. Two rare butterflies of intact forest, <i>Neaveia lamborni </i>and<i> Sarangesa tricerata </i>were present in the Museum collection but were not encountered in the survey at the University of Ibadan. The result showed the scarcity of strict forest butterflies which were present in the University of Ibadan in the 1950’s.