New research, published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, led by Dr Tiffany Ki, a Henslow Research Fellow in our Insect Ecology Group, has used innovative methods to show long term patterns in the species richness of tropical butterflies.

Focussing on the swallowtail and satyrine butterflies, Dr Ki and colleagues integrated records from museum collections and contemporary citizen science (GBIF) to construct time series across 166 years (1857-2022) for three regions of Sulawesi (Indonesia). 

Dr Ki commented, ‘This paper comes from my PhD based at the University of York and Natural History Museum UK which focussed on the butterflies of Sulawesi (Indonesia) to explore how museum collections can improve our understanding of long-term tropical biodiversity change. 

‘This paper discusses one of the major outputs from my research - the construction of regional time series across 166 years (1857-2022), the longest tropical time series to date, through the integration of museum records with contemporary citizen science records.’

Rather than systematic declines in richness, Dr Ki and her team found evidence of reshuffling in community composition of all regions. Types of butterflies in different areas are shifting, some species are becoming more common, others are staying stable, and some are declining. 

They also found that that shorter-term directional changes (over a few decades) are not indicative of the long-term patterns, highlighting the difficulty for determining trends from short-term data and the importance of the kind of innovative approach that Dr Ki has taken.

Dr Ki is looking forward to building on this research, ‘This work forms the basis for exciting fieldwork next summer, where with local collaborators, we will set-up a systematic monitoring design in two of the three regions studied and extend this unique time series to the present, allowing current and future biodiversity changes to be evaluated with over a century of historic data.’

Dr Ki’s fieldwork next year is funded by the Phyllis and Eileen Gibbs Travelling Research Fellowship at Newnham College Cambridge.

Image: A drawer of Papilio peranthus butterfly specimens.

Read the paper: Ki, T.L.T., Beale, C.M., Huertas, B., & Hill, J.K. ‘Little long-term change in regional species richness of tropical butterflies over the past 166 years masks turnover in community composition’ Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 10.1098/rspb.2024.2576