Effect of small-scale disturbance on butterfly communities of an Indochinese montane rainforest

The differences between the composition of butterfly communities in gaps created by illegal logging and in closed canopy habitat were studied in montane forest in the Tam Dao Mountains, northern Vietnam. Methods of constrained ordination (canonical correspondence analysis, redundancy analysis) were used for data analysis. The species composition in the two habitats differs significantly. stenotopic species confined to the closed canopy habitat usually have a smaller geographic range. Although the species richness and diversity was higher in gaps, the conservation value of closed canopy habitat lies in the presence of species with restricted range. The creation of gaps by local people changes the natural disturbance regime and causes a threat to biota confined to the closed canopy forest. Bioindicator importance of the local butterfly fauna (Papilionoidea) was evaluated and a list of species is presented. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.