A Study of the Butterfly Community of Mt. Gyeryong National Park, Korea

Altitude is a factor that plays an important role in the diversity, richness and composition of species. Recently, much attention has been paid to the distribution of butterflies and insects according to altitude. The purpose of this article is to propose a method to preserve and manage species efficiently by reviewing the distribution of butterflies according to different altitudes in Mt. Gyeryong National Park. This study found that the number of species and individuals decreased as the altitude increased, possibly due to the increased amount of shade caused by the crown density. When analyzing the factors influencing the distribution of species other than altitude, it was found that the slope, vegetative colonies and hydrosphere distance were correlated with the change in species distribution. As these species are closely related to food plants, it may save time and reduce the cost as well as allow an efficient evaluation of the bio-diversity if these species are selected as biological indicator species suitable for detecting the changes in the forest. It is judged to be a more efficient means of species preservation to accumulate and quantify the materials regarding environmental elements such as the climate, microclimate and food plants, as this would allow the butterfly distribution to be estimated.