COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BUTTERFLY (LEPIDOPTERA: PAPILIONOIDEA) COMMUNITIES IN MONOCULTURE AND POLYCULTURE OIL PALM SMALLHOLDINGS IN JOHOR, MALAYSIA

Muhammad Hafizurridwan Mohd Hisam, Kamisah Suhaili, Siti Aisyah Adnan, Umi Syafiqah Ahmad Fahmi, Noor Hafida Abu Seman, Muhammad Haziq Ismat Mohamad Rais, Adlil Ikram Sharuddin, Mahadimenakbar Mohamed Dawood, Aqilah Awg Abdul Rahman

Abstract


Conversion of tropical forests to oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations is a primary driver of biodiversity loss. Polyculture farming is widely promoted as a mitigation strategy, yet empirical evidence from smallholder systems, particularly for sensitive bioindicator taxa like butterflies, remains limited. This study aimed to bridge this knowledge gap by directly comparing butterfly communities in adjacent monoculture and polyculture smallholder plantations. We investigated butterfly abundance, species richness, and community composition between July 2024 to January 2025 in a smallholder monoculture and polyculture site integrated with fruit crops and livestock in Johor, Malaysia. Butterflies were sampled using baited traps and aerial net surveys along standardized transects. Diversity was quantified using the Shannon (H') and Evenness (E') indices, and community similarity was assessed using Jaccard Similarity Index. Habitat characterization included measurements of canopy cover, tree density, shrub density, and herbaceous cover. A total of 381 individuals from 48 species and five families of butterflies were recorded. Habitat assessment revealed a high degree of structural uniformity between the two sites, with no significant differences in canopy cover, tree density and understorey density (P>0.05). Despite the physical uniformity, the polyculture system supported significantly higher butterfly abundance and species richness (38 species; H’ = 2.641) compared to monoculture system (32 species; H’ = 2.518). A Kruskal-Wallis test confirmed a statistically significant difference in butterfly community structure between the two management systems (H = 4.379, P>0.05). The polyculture site was characterized by high abundances of Elymnias hypermnestra beatrice (31.56%) and Junonia almana javana (19.77%), likely driven by the increased floristic quality of intercropped fruit trees and organic resource from integrated livestock. Our findings demonstrated that butterfly diversity in smallholder landscapes is driven by variety in resources and habitat quality rather than mere structural density. This emphasizes the importance of polyculture and livestock integration as effective tools for sustaining tropical biodiversity in agricultural settings.

Full Text:

PDF

References


Adams, M.D., Law, B.S. & French, K.O 2009. Vegetation structure influences the vertical stratification of open and edge space aerial foraging bats in harvested forests. Forest Ecology and Management 258(9): 2090–100.

Asmah, S., Ghazali, A., Syafiq, M., Yahya, M.S., Peng, T.L., Norhisham, A.R., Puan, C.L., Azhar, B. & Lindenmayer. D.B. 2017. Effects of Polyculture and Monoculture Farming in Oil Palm Smallholdings on Tropical Fruit-Feeding Butterfly Diversity. Agricultural and Forest Entomology 19 (1): 70–80.

Azhar, B., Saadun, N., Puan, C.L., Kamarudin, N., Aziz, N., Nurhidayu, S. & Fischer. J. 2015. Promoting landscape heterogeneity to improve the biodiversity benefits of certified palm oil production: Evidence from Peninsular Malaysia. Global Ecology and Conservation 3: 553–61.

Blumetto, O., Castagna, A., Cardozo, G., García, F., Tiscornia, G., Ruggia, A., Scarlato, S., Albicette, M.M., Aguerre, V. & Albin. A. 2019. Ecosystem integrity index, an innovative environmental evaluation tool for agricultural production systems. Ecological Indicators 101: 725–33.

Bonebrake, T.C., Ponisio, L.C., Boggs, C.L. & Ehrlich. P.R. 2010. More than just indicators: A review of tropical butterfly ecology and conservation. Biological Conservation 143(8): 1831–41.

Choudhary, N.L. & Chishty, N. 2020. Effect of habitat loss and anthropogenic activities on butterflies survival: A review. International Journal of Entomology 5(4): 94–98.

Cleary, D.F.R., Boyle, T.J.B., Setyawati, T. & Menken. S.B.J. 2004. The Impact of Logging on the Abundance, Species Richness and Community Composition of Butterfly Guilds in Borneo. Journal of Applied Entomology 129(1): 52–59.

Colwell, R. K. & Coddington. J.A. 1994. Estimating terrestrial biodiversity through extrapolation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 345(1311): 5–15.

Colwell, R.K., Mao, C.X. & Chang, J. 2004. Interpolating, extrapolating, and comparing incidence-based species accumulation curves. Ecology 85(10): 2717–27.

Corbet, A.S., Pendlebury, H.M., Van Der Poorten, G.M. & Van Der Poorten, N.E. 2020. The Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula. 5th Edition. Kuala Lumpur: Southdene.

Corbet, S.A. 2000. Butterfly nectaring flowers: Butterfly morphology and flower form. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 96(3): 289–98.

Descals, A., Wich, S., Meijaard, E., Gaveau, D.L.A., Peedell, S. & Szantoi, Z. 2021. High-resolution global map of smallholder and industrial closed-canopy oil palm plantations. Earth System Science Data 13(3): 1211–31.

DeVries, P.J., Hamm, C.A. & Fordyce, J.A. 2016. A standardized sampling protocol for fruit-feeding butterflies (Nymphalidae). In Larson, T.H. (ed.). Core Standardized Methods for Rapid Biological Field Assessment, pp. 208–15. Arlington, VA: Conservation International.

Evans, L.C., Sibly, R.M., Thorbek, P., Sims, I., Oliver, T.H. & Walters, R.J. 2020. The importance of including habitat-specific behaviour in models of butterfly movement. Oecologia 193(2): 249–59.

Franzluebbers, A.J. & Martin, G. 2022. Farming with forages can reconnect crop and livestock operations to enhance circularity and foster ecosystem services. Grass and Forage Science 77(4): 270–81.

Habel, J.C., Eibensteiner, P., Schmitt, T. & Eberle, J. 2025. Population ecology of the apollo butterfly Parnassias apollo in the Austrian Alps – a mark-release recapture study. Journal of Insect Conservation 29(3): 39.

Hammer, Ø., Harper, D.A.T. & Ryan, P.D. 2001. PAST: Paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontologia Electronica 4(1): 1–9.

Harich, F.K. & Treydte, A.C. 2016. Mammalian wildlife diversity in rubber and oil palm plantations. CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources 11(002): 1–10.

Iverson, A.L., Marín, L.E., Ennis, K.K., Gonthier, D.J., Connor-Barrie, B.T., Remfert, J.L., Cardinale, B.J. & Perfecto, I. 2014. Do polycultures promote win-wins or trade-offs in agricultural ecosystem services? A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Ecology 51(6): 1593–1602.

Kadoya, T., Takeuchi, Y., Shinoda, Y. & Nansai. K. 2022. Shifting agriculture is the dominant driver of forest disturbance in threatened forest species’ ranges. Communications Earth & Environment 3(1): 1–10.

Lemaire, G., Franzluebbers, A., Carvalho, P.C.de F. & Dedieu, B. 2014. Integrated crop-livestock systems: Strategies to achieve synergy between agricultural production and environmental quality. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 190: 4–8.

Magurran, A.E. 1988. Ecological Diversity and Its Measurement. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

Malaysia Meteorological Department. 2025. Weather Forecast for States. Malaysian Meteorological Department.

Https://www.met.gov.my/en/forecast/weather/state/St013/ [29 January 2025].

Miller III, D.G., Lane, J. & Senock, R. 2011. Butterflies as potential bioindicators of primary rainforest and oil palm plantation habitats on New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Pacific Conservation Biology 17(2): 149–59.

Mohd-Azlan, J., Kaicheen, S.S., Lok, L. & Lawes. M.J. 2019. The role of forest fragments in small mammal conservation in an oil palm plantation in Northern Sarawak, Borneo. Journal of Oil Palm Research 31(3): 422–36.

Morpurgo, J., Huurdeman, M.A, Oostermeijer, J.G.B. & Remme. R.P. 2024. Vegetation density is the main driver of insect species richness and diversity in small private urban front gardens. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 101: 128531

MPOB. 2024. Overview of the Malaysian Oil Palm Industry in 2024. Bangi: Malaysian Palm Oil Board.

Murphy, D.J. 2024. Carbon sequestration by tropical trees and crops: A case study of oil palm. Agriculture 14(7): 1133.

QGIS (2025). QGIS Geographic Information System. Version 3.4.3 (Priszen). Open-Source Geospatial Foundation Project.

https://www.qgis.org [20 January 2025]

Rossato, D.O., Iserhard, C.A., Nakamura, G., Duarte, L. & Nadeau, N. 2025. The effects of agroforestry and conventional banana plantations on multiple dimensions of butterfly diversity in the Atlantic Forest. Biodiversity and Conservation 34(7): 2401–24.

Royer, R., Austin, J. & Newton, W. 1998. Checklist and ‘pollard walk’ butterfly survey methods on public lands. American Midland Naturalist 140(2): 358–71.

Sánchez-Dávila, J., Traveset, A. & Colom, P.2024. Effects of food availability on butterfly diversity and network specialization across altitudinal levels in a Mediterranean Landscape. Biodiversity and Conservation 33(1): 239–56.

Schulze, C.H., Linsenmair, K.E. & Fiedler, K. 2001. Understorey versus canopy: Patterns of vertical stratification and diversity among lepidoptera in a Bornean Rain Forest. Plant Ecology 153(1–2): 133–52.

Teuscher, M., Vorlaufer, M., Wollni, M., Brose, U., Mulyani, Y. & Clough, Y. 2015. Trade-offs between bird diversity and abundance, yields and revenue in smallholder oil palm plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia. Biological Conservation 186: 306–18.

Turner, E.C. & Foster, W.A. 2009. The impact of forest conversion to oil palm on arthropod abundance and biomass in Sabah, Malaysia. Journal of Tropical Ecology 25(1): 23–30.

Vijay, V., Pimm, S.L., Jenkins, C.N. & Smith, S.J. 2016. The impacts of oil palm on recent deforestation and biodiversity loss. PLoS ONE 11(7): e0159668.

Vujanović, D., Arok, M., Veselić, S., Skendžić, T., Andrić, A., Đorđević, A. & Vujić., A. 2025. Butterfly community dynamics in a monoculture-dominated agricultural landscape. Ecological Entomology 50(2): 360–72.

Wei, C.H., Lohman, D.J., Peggie, D. & Yen. S.H. 2017. An illustrated checklist of the Genus Elymnias Hübner, 1818 (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae). ZooKeys 676: 47–152.

Zaehringer, J.G., Messerli, P., Giger, M., Kiteme, B., Atumane, A.A.P., Da Silva, M., Rakotoasimbola, L. & Eckert, S. 2021. Large-scale agricultural investments in Eastern Africa: Consequences for small-scale farmers and the environment. Ecosystems and People 17(1): 342–57.

Zaki, W.M.W., Yahya, M.S., Norhisham, A.R., Sanusi, R., van der Meer, P.J. & Azhar, B. 2023. Agroforestry orchards support greater butterfly diversity than monoculture plantations in the tropics. Oecologia 201(1): 863–75.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.