Butterflies are creatures of nature with great economic importance as pollinators and bio-indicators. This study provides checklist of butterfly species present in Zoological and Botanical gardens of University of Nigeria, Nsukka and was conducted for three Months. Butterflies were sampled twice a week between 7.00 -10.00am from May to July 2019; using sweep net along existing transects within the gardens. Non-invasive method was adopted, butterflies were captured, photographed and released. Photographed samples were identified to species level by cross matching with relevant keys. A total of 91 butterflies belonging to 16 species, 10 genera and 3 families were sampled. Alpha diversity test showed a significant difference (p<0.05) in terms of Relative Abundance, Diversity and Dominance of butterfly species between the two gardens. The Botanical garden had Relative Abundance of 63.73%, Dominance of 0.23 which was higher compared to Zoological garden which had 36.16% and 0.10; but these was contrary to species diversity where Zoological garden was more diverse (H1=2.48) than botanical garden (H1=1.82). The differences observed could be attributed to variations in vegetation composition.
D Echude, MI Amobi, SU Umar, IM Ezenwa, CN Okechukwu
