Abstract: The Lepidopteran species of Artvin province were investigated. To collect specimens, a sweep net and light traps were used. The butterfly species that were captured in Artvin centrum (Kafkasor, Sacinka, Melodagi, Seyitler), Ardanuc (Kutul, Meseli, Fidanlik), Arhavi, Hatila National park, Hopa (Cankurtaran, Kemalpasa), Murgul, Savsat (Sahara, Karagol), Yusufeli (Barhal, Yaylalar, Altiparmak, Kilickaya). In the end of the study, a total of 192 species belonging to 15 families of the order Lepidoptera were identified. The family Lycaenidae was represented by the highest number of species (62) followed by Satryridae (27), Nymphalidae (25) and Hesperiidae (20). Most of the species found in this study were captured in Yusufeli.

INTRODUCTION

There are well over 1 million known species of insects in the world and some experts estimate that there might be as many as 10 million. Lepidoptera is a very large order that includes some of the most beautiful species and some of the most economically important pests in the class Insecta (Pedigo, 1996). This order is recognized as one of the largest order of insects (Romoser and Stoffolano, 1994) having >150,000 described species (Groombridge, 1992). World butterflies number about 17,280 species representing described taxa that have not been synonymised and are currently grouped into 1855 genera, 35 subfamilies and 7 families (Shields, 1989). Besides, Cassie (2007) has declared that there are 17,000 species of butterflies in the world.

There is an increasing body of evidence suggesting that connectivity and quality of habitats in agricultural landscapes have a significant effect on survival of animal species including arthropods (Andow, 1991; Rossing et al., 2003). Lepidoptera are found in a wide variety of habitats but are almost always associated with higher plants especially angiosperms. Butterflies are very important ecological indicators since, the majority of butterflies are sensative to various environmental changes and their number in most cases is directly proportional to the ecological state of areas inhabited by them they are considered very important ecological indicators (Borror et al., 1989; Gillott, 2005). Butterflies are most active during the warmer months of the year, mid-spring to early autumn.

Past studies have dealt primarily with taxa identi-fication. There are several regional studies to determine the Lepidoptera fauna in Turkey but not completed and remain unknown mostly regional areas (Akbulut et al., 2003; Beskardes, 2002; Can, 2008; Hakyemez, 1994; Kansu, 1963; Kaygin et al., 2009; Mol and Avci, 1997; Mol, 1977; Okyar and Aktac, 1999, 2006).

Artvin has a rather rich fauna because of numeraous microclimas created by climatic features and forms. However, the fauna of the Artvin has still not been fully studied. This study was carried out to determine the Lepidopteran species of Artvin province. Researchers found some Lepidopteran species in Artvin earlier however, this study is important since, it is the first and comprehensive study of Lepidopteran species.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The main material of this study has been the species of Lepidoptera existing in Artvin province, Turkey. Artvin is located in eastern part of Black sea region of Turkey. As a Black sea region province, Artvin which has a total of 7,367 km² land area is in the West of Ardahan, North of Erzurum, East of Rize and West of Georgia. Artvin includes Camili biosphere reserve known as the first biosphere site of Turkey is one of the 507 sites in 102 countries worldwide. In the province although, Arhavi and Hopa’s alluvial plains, the high plateaus possess a big share of the land mass. As a typical Black sea region province in every season a rainfall climate is seen in the coastal areas of the province while in the interior sides a continental climate, cousisting of harsher winters and less summer precipitation is seen. The altitude of the area ranges from 100-3925 m.

The dendroflora of the Artvin district is represented by 171 taxa, 119 species, 33 sub-species and 19 varieties belonging to 81 genera and 42 families. Gymnosperms and Angiosperms comprised 8 and 163 taxa, respectively. Pseudomacchie, forest, alpine, subalpine, rocky and hydrophytic are the main vegetation types in Artvin. Forest vegetation is the most widespread in the study area (Eminagaoglu and Bak, 2008).

The study area included 8 locaties in Artvin (Table 1). The adult butterflies were collected mainly from herbaceous plants in different habitats such as open habitats, road sides, agricultural fields, meadows vineyards and forest where they were active between April and October in 2007 and 2009.

Butterflies caught with a sweep net were killed in potassium cyanide or ethyl acetate and were then transferred to the laboratory in a fatty envelope.

Table 1:	Geographic lacality coordinatescof collected specimens

At night, nocturnal specimens were collected by light traps. Specimens were pinned using insect pins (mostly, 3-5 sized) and were mounted on spreading boards. Collection and preservation techniques used in this research were based mainly on Canakcioglu (1993). In adition to these methods confining in polyester was used. Each lepidopteran specimen was identified with the aid of stereomicroscope. A variety of literature sources were used for identification (Covell, 1984; Higgins, 1982). The identifacation of species was performed according to Hesselbarth. Faunistic data of all the species collected in the present study are shown (Table 1 and Fig. 1). Family names and species are listed according to Siberian Zoological Museum List. The specimens are stored at the collection room of Forest Entomology and Protection Unit, Forest Faculty, Artvin Coruh University, Artvin, Turkey.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

During the 3 years, total 192 secimens were collected. A total of 349 Lepidoptera specimens were collected in Artvin province. A total of 192 species belonging to 15 families of the order Lepidoptera were identified and are listed as follows. The samples mostly identified have been Lycaenidae, Noctuidae, Nymphalidae and Satyridae.

Fig. 1:	Study area

Table 2:	Identification species and localities in artvin province

The species number and ratio of the families are shown in Fig. 2 while the species identified in Artvin region, the dates and locations are shown in Table 2.

The highest number of species was in the family Lycaenidae (61) followed by Satryridae (27), Nymphalidae (25) and Hesperiidae (20), respectively. The lowest number of species was in the family Zygaenide, Saturniidae, Nolidae and Pterophoridae (1) (Fig. 2).The highest number of species was found in grassland, forest and agricultural habitat types, respectively. The lowest number of species was found in urban habitat types.

Fig. 2:	The species number and ratio of the families

The highest number of species was catched in Yusufeli (102), followed by Artvin (50), Ardanuc (49), Hatila National Park (35), Savsat (22) and Murgul (22). The lowest number of species was catched in Arhavi (9) and Hopa (13) (Fig. 3 and 4). Most of Noctudae species was catched by light trap. Light trap was used only Hatila National Park and Murgul district.

In this research, 192 species belonging to 1 families of sub-order 339 were captured and identified in Artvin region of Black sea. Lepidopteran species were collected from different habitat types (agricultural crops to conifer or deciduous forests), locations (city to mountain) and time periods (May through September) to perform the best sampling of Artvin province. Artvin has very high ecosystem diversity in both forest and agricultural lands which may increase insect species richness (including Lepidoptera). The number of species was the highest for forest and the lowest for urban habitats.

There was significant difference between these two habitat types in terms of species richness. Forested habitats had a higher species richness than that of agricultural habitats. Most of species had a wide altitudinal distribution from 250-1800 m. These results suggest that the increasing plant diversity may affect species richness positively. Increased niche diversity provided by trees in forest should lead to increased insect species richness because trees are larger and more complex in their architecture and live longer than herbaceous plants (Lawton, 1978). The highest number of species was collected during summer months with a peak in July and decreasing through autumn. The same trend was also observed for the number of specimens. The highest number of specimens was collected in July and June. The lowest number of specimens was collected in May. The peak activity period for Lepidopterans in Artvin province was between June and August. This can be related to the phenology of plants and changing environmental conditions of ecosystems.

The period of peak Lepidopteran numbers is an indicator of optimum abiotic and biotic conditions in the research areas. Changes in the structural complexity of plants over time might also affect the number of Lepidopteran species and individuals. The highest number of species was collected in Yusufeli. These results suggest that the increasing plant diversity may affect species richness positively. Increased niche diversity provided by trees in forest should lead to increased insect species richness because trees are larger and more complex in their architecture and live longer than herbaceous plants (Lawton, 1978).

Artvin province has got a rich flora and fauna. In this rich fauna, the abundance of variety of Lepidoptera has formerly taken the attention of many observers.

Fig. 3:	Number of species in Artvin’s localities

Fig. 4:	Distribution of species

Vegetation type is not reported for all species in this article because some species were found in every vegetation type which would make the article much longer. According to host plants, Papilio machaon, Leptidea sinapis, Pieris rapae, Pieris brassicae, Agrius convolvuli and Agrotis saucia are harmful insects to different agricultural plants.

Total 25 butterfly species (Satyrium ilicis, Satyrium acaciae, Satyrium w-album, Favonius quercus, Celastrina argiolus, Polygonia c-album, Saturnia pyri, Hydriomena impluviata, Alcis repandata, Campaea margaritata, Campaea margaritata, Laothoe populi, Arctia villica, Callimorpha quadripunctaria, Hyphantria cunea, Autographa gamma, Catocala elocata, Catocala nupta, Agrotis c-nigrum, Amphipyra pyramidea, Calliteara pudibunda, Euproctis chrysorrhoea, Lymantria dispar, Lymantria monacha, Leucoma salicis) identified as a result of different studies have formed some of the harmful insects causing harm to different forest trees and fruit trees. Larvae of other species eat grasses and forage crops (Mol and Avci, 1997; Arslan, 1998; Oymen, 1990; Ozkazanc, 1998; Kaygin et al., 2009).

In this study, some of the species identified have been noted as harmful or potentially harmful for forests. These are A. villica, A. gamma, E. chrysorrhoea, L. dispar, L. salicis. The conservation status of plants and animals is one of the most widely used indicators for assessing the condition of ecosystems and their biodiversity. At the global scale, the best source of information on the conservation status of plants and animals is the IUCN red list of threatened species (IUCN, 2009). IUCN red list has got 8 Lepidoptera species in Near Threataned (NT). They are Carcharodus flocciferus, Carcharodus lavatherae, Chazara brisei, Hipparchia statilinus, Polyommatus damon, Polyommatus dorylas, Polyommatus eros and Pseudophilotes vicrama. Others species are identified as Least Concern (LC), Not Applicaple (NA) and Data Deficient (DD).

CONCLUSION

Climate is a major factor determining the distribution of species as well as the distribution of the vegetation. Climate change may simply shift these distributions but for a number of reasons, plants and animals may not be able to keep track of these changes (Schweiger et al., 2008). Climate change is already impacting some populations and is likely to affect additional species more significantly in the future (Settele et al., 2008). Within woodlands, many butterfly species rely on open areas, clearings, grass patches or woodland margins and require regular forest management (Van Swaay and Warren, 1999). A major factor in the decline of such species is the widespread changes in woodland management across Artvin, leading to reduced habitat suitability (Konvicka et al., 2008). Pesticides and herbicides kill butterflies. Furthermore, domestic and agricultural pollution (such as nitrogen deposition) leads to a faster succession of vegetation thus reducing the area of suitable habitat and habitat connectivity substantially. Have declared that there are 345 species in Turkey while 192 species were identified in Artvin in this study. This study indicates that Lepidoptera diversity is quite high in Artvin.