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Simple Summary: To form a better understanding and benefit future conservation of the apollo and swallowtail butterflies in the Hengduan Mountains in China, the present research projected the 59 Papilionidae species' spatial richness using the Maxent model and predicted the response to climate change. The spatial pattern of apollos concentrated in the subalpine to alpine areas in western Sichuan, northwestern Yunnan, and eastern Tibet, while that of swallowtails is more confined to the tropical and subtropical valleys of western Yunnan and western Sichuan. Both subfamilies would exhibit northward and upward range shifts with climate change but many apollos would experience drastic habitat contraction, resulting in lower species richness, while most swallowtails would experience habitat expansion, and the species richness would increase. Species with habitat contraction, narrow-ranged distribution and endemicity require more conservation measures in the future. The family of Papilionidae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) is a group of butterflies with high ecological and conservation value. The Hengduan Mountains (HMDs) in Southwest China is an important diversity centre for these butterflies. However, the spatial distribution pattern and the climate vulnerability of Papilionidae butterflies in the HDMs remain unknown to date. The lack of such knowledge has already become an obstacle in formulating effective butterfly conservation strategies. The present research compiled a 59-species dataset with 1938 occurrence points. The Maxent model was applied to analyse the spatial pattern of species richness in subfamilies Parnassiinae and Papilioninae, as well as to predict the response under the influence of climate change. The spatial pattern of both subfamilies in the HDMs has obvious elevation prevalence, with Parnassiinae concentrated in the subalpine to alpine areas (2500–5500 m) in western Sichuan, northwestern Yunnan and eastern Tibet, while Papilioninae is concentrated in the low- to medium-elevation areas (1500–3500 m) in the river valleys of western Yunnan and western Sichuan. Under the influence of climate change, both subfamilies would exhibit northward and upward range shifts. The majority of Parnassiinae species would experience drastic habitat contraction, resulting in lower species richness across the HDMs. In contrast, most Papilioninae species would experience habitat expansion, and the species richness would also increase significantly. The findings of this research should provide new insights and a clue for butterfly diversity and climatic vulnerability in southwestern China. Future conservation efforts should be focused on species with habitat contraction, narrow-ranged distribution and endemicity with both in situ and ex situ measures, especially in protected areas. Commercialised collecting targeting these species must also be regulated by future legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bird diversity is often used as surrogates for other species diversity, but there is a limited understanding of the extent of this surrogate in identifying representative priority conservation areas (PCAs). We used Yunnan Province in China as a case to measure the surrogacy of birds in systematic conservation planning. Here, we collected distribution records of mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and birds from public databases and literature, and applied systematic conservation planning methods to identify PCAs. We targeted four taxonomic groups at conservation targets of 17%, 31%, and 50% of the total study area, and used the Jaccard similarity index to evaluate the surrogate extent of bird PCAs for the other three groups. Then, we overlapped different portfolios of PCAs with six categories of protected areas (PAs) in Yunnan, calculated the protection rates, and evaluated the effect of sustainable-use PAs on improving the protection rate of strict Nature Reserves. The results showed that bird PCAs generally had the highest surrogacy for representing PCAs of the other three taxa. At the 50% conservation target, the Jaccard indices between birds and the other taxa reached about 0.50. Moreover, amphibian PCAs had a good surrogacy for conserving reptiles, with a Jaccard index of 0.30, 0.44 and 0.51 at the 17%, 31% and 50% conservation targets, respectively. The existing PA system had quite low coverages for PCAs of these four taxa, and the average protection rates were 22.97%, 19.78% and 16.52% at the three levels of conservation targets, respectively. The sustainable-use PAs can greatly complement the strict Nature Reserves by achieving average increased PA coverages of 10.00%, 9.20% and 7.90% at the three conservation targets. Our findings provide a basis for surrogate-based conservation planning for areas with insufficient biodiversity information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]