A Ecological Baseline Surveys Of: - Lake Bisina - Nature Uganda

3.4.1 Species Richness
There were at least four forest edge/woodland species recorded from the two Nakivale sites and
Bisina 2 transects. These were Bicyclus jefferyi, Precis pelarga, Ypthima albida and Ypthimomorpha
itonia. There was one FL species recorded from Nakivale 2 (B. smithi). There were four swamp/
wetland species recorded during this study. These included Acraea rahira (Opeta 1), Mylothris
rubricosta (Nakivale 2), Borbo micans (Bisina 3) and Metisella midas (Nakivale 2).
Table 1. Summary of Ecotypes for the three Ramsar sites
Ecotype Lake Nakivale Lake Bisina Lake Opeta
FL 1 0 0
f. 2 1 0
S 2 1 1
O 3 11 5
W 11 16 9
O/m 2 8 4
W/m 2 5 4
U 0 1 0
Total 23 43 23
From table 1, it can be noted that the majority of the species recorded at all the three sites fall in the
widespread and open habitat categories. Lake Bisina registered the highest number of species with
Lake Nakivale and Lake Opeta with 23 species of butterflies respectively.
Figure 1. Distribution of butterfly species in the three study sites
Different butterfly species have varied ecological preferences within the habitats. For the wetland
systems, the swamp/wetland species (S) is an indicator of the quality of the habitat. From figure
1, the majority of species recorded were open habitat species and the widespread species. The
Nakivale area surveyed was dominated by the Acacia woodland and reason enough to justify the
presence of a forest species.
In comparison with previous studies (Asasira, 2003), a number of species which were recorded
then were visibly absent from current study. For Lake Bisina; Asasira (2003) recorded a total of 61
species compared with 43 species from this study. Like for Lake Opeta, there was a reduction in
species numbers from 73 species to only 23 species.
Ecological Baseline Surveys of Lake Bisina, Lake Opeta, Lake Mburo and Nakivali Wetlands Systems 45