Composition and modularity of the butterfly assemblages of playas del este, La Habana, Cuba

Abstract

59 butterfly species were found among 11 sites of playas del Este, from Tarará to Rincón de Guanabo. The dominant element of this landscape is the Vegetation Complex of Sandy Coast, with relict areas of wetlands, mangroove forests and terrains cover of flora basically sinantrope. The environmental matriz is characterized by urbanizations and intense tourist activities. There were acomplished 125 visits between September, 2014 and July, 2019. The lineal distance travelled among sites varied from 330 m to 1500 m. The richest species sites were Tropicoco (43), Boca Ciega Cancha (41) and Guanabo (32). The family with the greater number of species was Hesperiidae with 20, followed by Nymphalidae and Pieridae both with 15 species each. The best represented families at national level were Pieridae (42.9% of Cuba species total) and Hesperiidae (36.4%). The most frequent species (10 - 11 sites) were Agraullis vanillae, Anartia jatrophae, Calisto herophile, Eurema daira, Leptotes cassius, Phoebis sennae and Pyrisitia nise, and the most abundant Nathalis iole, E. daira and P. nise. Fill matrix was high (43 %), with high robustness (96 %) in the species/sites association. The general spatial pattern among sites exhibited a significant nested configuration, and also modular with four modules. There were distinguished two sources or nodal sites: Tropicoco and Boca Ciega Cancha, which support the highest combined species richness (89 %) and high complementarity, these contain the highest number of less frequent species (62 %) and share only 25 % of them.