Diurnal Butterflies of the Serranía de Los Churumbelos,Cauca. Altitudinal Distribution and Species Diversity (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera: Papilionoidea)

The roll of the butterflies as indicators of endemism biodiversity extend of forest intervention and forest quality and surveys of this group is of great importance to the conservation of pristin forest sites such as Serranía de los Churumbelos, department of Cauca. We present an inventary of diurnal butterflies colected by the Colombia'98 expedition. The adults were colected an altitudinal gradient from 350-1450 m, and include information on biology, abundance, and elevational distribution patterns of species. A total of 144 species were recorded in five families and 12 subfamilies. The highest levels of diversity were recorded at 350 and 700 m elevation, and the largest diversity was at 1450 m. We noticed that as we went higher in altitude we recorded at greater number of butterflies; which means that the lower the altitude the less similarity in the species. The high levels of diversity recorded at these altitudes are probably due to highly variable vegetation and biogeographical resources. The Serranía de los Churumbelos is an important site for future conservation, due to its highly diverse lepidopterofauna which includes many rare or poorly known species with few specimens in collections, which demonstrate the pristine characters of the forest in the region, despite the presence of some forest border species.