Community characteristics of butterflies in the Gansu Taitong—Kongtongshan National Nature Reserve

The Distribution of butterflies(Lepidoptera:Rhopalocera) in Gansu's Taitong-Kongtongshan National Nature Reserve was studied from 2006 to 2010.Identification of about 4 800 specimens indicated that 230 species and subspecies of butterflies from 10 families,24 subfamilies and 126 genera were obtained.The Nymphalidae,with 71 species comprising 30.87% of the total,were the dominant group.The Satyridae and Lycaenidae were represented by 46 species and 37 species,respectively comprising 20.0% and 16.1% of the total.Both the Libytheidae and Riodinidae were represented by just one genus and one species.Palearctic species comprised 26.5% of the 230 species identified,Oriental species 5.7% and widely distributed species 67.8%.75 of the 126 genera,59.5% of the total,were monotypic,containing species that comprised 32.6% of the total.Fifty-one genera,40.5% of the total,were polytypic,containing 155 species or 67.4% of the total.The ratio of genera to species was 0.548.The results show that the butterfly fauna of this region is mainly comprised of monotypic genera.