Observing Butterfly Diversity in IPB Campus, Darmaga

The scorching sun could not dampen their spirit and morale of butterflies lovers to carry out their butterfly watching program on Saturday-Sunday. The butterfly watching program was organized by the Kelompok Pemerhati Kupu-Kupu (KPK Butterflies Observer Group) Sarpedon, of the  Association of Forest Resources Conservation and Ecotourism Students, of Bogor Agricultural University (Himakova IPB).  The program aims to identify the diversity of butterfly species in IPB. In addition to Sarpedon, other groups who joined the  butterfly watching program were other Associations of Students under Himakova, and  students from other Departments including the Department of Biology of FMIPA IPB.

The first itinerary of the butterfly watching program was brief explanation and grouping of the participants by Faisal, the senior member of KPK Sarpedon. The four teams were assigned to observe four fields in IPB. The locations for the butterflies watching were Landscape Arboretum area, cattle pen of the Faculty of Animal Science,  and housing complex of faculty members of IPB.

Field observations of approximately one hour in length were conducted in some areas. The observing areas were divided into three plots based on the time interval given by the committee. Participants with the nets had managed to capture some species of butterflies and carry them with oil paper. A butterfly net is one of several kinds of nets used to collect insects. “The entire bag of the net is generally constructed from a lightweight mesh to minimize damage to delicate butterfly wings," Faisal explained.

The butterflies hunted by the four teams was then released in the captive dome located at Taman Plaza Rektorat. It is expected, that butterfly in the captive dome would breed in captivity and can be released later on. This program is to increase the decreased population of butterflies in IPB cmpus.

At the end of the program, all the participants met at the Ecology Wildlife Laboratory of the Faculty of Forestry of Bogor Agricultural University (FAHUTAN IPB). Each team identified the butterflies they have captured. Records show that the teams hunted several species of butterflies, starting from the family Nymphalidae to Pieridae. Some of the species captured include Papilio demolion, Graphium agamemnon, and genus Eurema sp. (Wied)