Beyond the Forest: Quantifying Species Richness and Abundance of Butterflies in Overlooked Great Plains of Central Eastern New Mexico, USA.

Eastern New Mexico, part of the Great Plains in the USA, has often been neglected for its studies of butterfly diversity because of its arid climate and flat landscape. This study was conducted to assess the current species richness and abundance of butterflies in two sub-ecoregions of the Great Plains in central eastern NM, including the Semiarid Canadian Breaks and the Llano Estacado. The survey was conducted at selected focal sites in each sub-ecoregion from January to November 2023. A modified Pollard walk technique was employed to collect cumulative monthly data on the diversity of adult butterflies. A total of 856 individuals belonging to 46 species were counted for the Semiarid Canadian breaks, while a total of 812 individuals belonging to 65 species were counted for the Llano Estacado sub-ecoregion. The Shannon diversity index, Shannon equitability index, and relative abundance were calculated for each sub-ecoregion and a local abundance index was designed to rank the density of butterflies. Checklists of butterflies were prepared, along with information related to their residential status, phenology, and local abundance. Six new locality distributions were recorded from Llano Estacado, including Cupido amyntula (Boisduval, 1852), Gesta tristis tatius (W. H. Edwards, 1883), Polites carus (W. H. Edwards, 1883), Celastrina sp., Ministrymon leda (W. H. Edwards, 1882), and Polygonia satyrus satyrus (W. H. Edwards, 1869). The extensions of their ranges are discussed. A comparison of the diversity of butterflies between the two sub-ecoregions revealed a significant difference in the species abundances. Additionally, a significant difference was found among different families and their species abundances and among the different months and their species abundances in both sub-ecoregions. A total of 206 voucher specimens were collected during this study and were deposited at the Natural History Museum of Eastern New Mexico University, Portales. Overall, this study has helped to quantify the diversity of butterflies for 2023 in central eastern New Mexico. The baseline data generated from this study can be subjected to various ecological analyses for additional diversity analysis, and this research can also be replicated over years to observe the changes in diversity with changing environmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]