Butterflies are an important part of the ecosystem and a great identifier species. Individual species tend to favor certain flora (both in in their larval and imago stages) and can be used to help to indirectly identify plants species and their density.The number of species of butterfly and their population density helps to provide us with an indication of the state of an environment.
We started in Shimoni Forest West along the shortcut to the Transects. We swept for a total of 1 hour, which was divided up between 3 people, each doing 20min simultaneously.
Once caught the specimen was carefully removed from the net, being careful not to damage their fragile wings (their bodies are deceptively strong) and then logged and photographed both the top an underside of the wing in order to identify them back at base.
