A study on the butterfly diversity of Haldia industrial belt and adjacent rural area in Purba Medinipur district, West Bengal, India

67 species of butterflies under 5 families and 51 genera were recorded from Haldia industrial beltand adjacent rural area. Industrial zone hadfewer species low diversity and evenness indices and high dominance index. Nymphalidae outnumbered all other families in the industrial zone with 48% of the total species of that area. Such preponderance of any single family was not evident in the rural area, likewise industrial belt had 3 dominant species but no dominant species could be seen in the rural zone. Results suggest that industrialization could alter the butterfly diversity but it was not enough to make the two sites dissimilar as revealed by the index of similarity (0.52).