Los agroecosistemas cafetaleros modernos y su relación con la conservación de mariposas en paisajes fragmentados

Land use change by the intensification of agriculture contributes to tropical forest fragmentationand biodiversity loss. In this sense, in comparison with traditional agroforestry systems (AFS), modernAFS are considered irrelevant for the conservation of biodiversity of tropical forest fragments. However, thereis an increasing trend toward the establishment of different types of modern AFS. Owing to the sensitivity toenvironmental changes, we evaluated the biodiversity of butterflies in AFS with Coffea arabica and Erythrinapoeppigiana (CP), and intermixed with Musa spp. (CPM) or Cordia alliodora (the only native species of AFS)(CPL), as well as premontane very humid forest fragments in the Volcánica Central-Talamanca BiologicalCorridor, Costa Rica. In six representative sites of each system we set up three parallel 80 m line-transects, separatedby a distance of 25 m. Each coffee farm and forest fragment (FR) was surveyed during 1.5 hours to recordbutterflies. All sites were sampled once a month from May to July 2007. We obtained 4.5 hours of sampling/site, and 27 hours of sampling/habitat. Both CP and CPM together had a butterflies’ species composition whichdiffered from CPL and FR. The indicator species of both CP and CPM together were Hermeuptychia hermes andAnartia jatrophae which are typical of open areas. CPL resulted with the species of secondary forests Heliconiuserato petiverana and Pareuptychia ocirrhoe as indicators. In contrast, FR resulted with several indicator speciestypical of closed canopy forests such as Pierella helvina incanescens, Caligo eurilochus, and Morpho peleideslimpida. Moreover, the richness of species was similar among coffee AFS. Furthermore, the richness of speciesof each coffee AFS was lower in comparison with FR. However, among coffee AFS, CPL harbored higherdiversity (Exp(H’)) of forest butterflies than CP. Also, CPM was higher in abundance of frugivorous butterfliesin relation with CP and CPL. In fragmented forests, coffee farms with exotic shade species combined at leastwith a native tree or fruit species, can be a better habitat for forest butterflies than those dominated by an exoticmonospecific shade.