ORIGINAL PAPER Effects of land use patterns on the diversity and conservation status of butterflies in Kisii highlands, Kenya Rose Nyakemiso Sagwe 1 • Shadrack Muvui Muya 1 • Rosebella Maranga 2 Received: 13 January 2015 / Accepted: 16 November 2015 / Published online: 21 November 2015 Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 Abstract Habitat degradation poses a great threat to biodiversity conservation. Abundance and diversity of butterflies is an indicator of good environmental health. Understanding how different butterfly species respond to habitat degradation is a necessary step towards the devel- opment of effective measures to enhance environmental protection. This study investigated the impact of land use patterns on the diversity, abundance, and conservation status of butterflies in the Kisii highlands; a densely-pop- ulated region in Kenya that has received little attention in ecological studies. Sampling was done through a line transect of 300 m. A total of 2799 individual butterflies comprising 67 species were recorded across seven land cover types; secondary forest, grasslands, riverine, human settlement, mixed farmlands, monoculture, and mining areas. The secondary forest, riverine and mixed farmlands recorded more butterflies (37.0, 26.0, and 15.5 %, respec- tively), followed by grasslands (12.5 %), while monocul- ture, human settlements, and mines had the least number of butterflies (3.0 % each). Moreover, the secondary forest, riverine and mixed farmland land cover types were the most species rich. Nymphalidae were the most abundant (38 species) whereas, Papilionidae the least (3 species) in the region. Junonia sophia was the dominant species. Butterflies were most diverse in the secondary forest (Shannon–Weaver diversity index, H 0 = 2.89), while the human settlement had the least (H 0 = 1.25). One-way ANOVA analysis indicated a higher species similarity between secondary forest, mixed farming and riverine land cover types compared to a low species similarity between secondary forest and mining, grassland, monoculture and human settlement. Butterfly abundance and distribution was different between the dry and wet season among the land cover types. Therefore, land use patterns had effects on butterfly abundance and diversity and their conservation is threatened if proper management practices are not put in place. Planning of land use activities should thus encourage agro-forests/secondary forests interspaced with other land use activities to enhance environmental health and improve on biodiversity conservation. Keywords Butterfly conservation Á Biodiversity Á Land use patterns Á Kisii highlands Introduction The combined effect of landscape degradation caused by agricultural development, urbanization, forestry practices together with accelerated climate change is the greatest current threat to biodiversity (Hole et al. 2011; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005; Lee and Jetz 2008). Fur- thermore, these landscape modifications have been con- sidered as a leading cause of species endangerment (Pimm and Raven 2000; Sala et al. 2000). In particular, Afrotropical forests, which host some of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots, are rapidly diminishing due to anthropogenic disturbances resulting in loss of many Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10841-015-9826-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Rose Nyakemiso Sagwe namikorose@yahoo.co.uk 1 Department of Zoology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O. Box 62000, Nairobi 00200, Kenya 2 Adminstration, Multimedia University, P.O. Box 30305, Nairobi, Kenya 123 J Insect Conserv (2015) 19:1119–1127 DOI 10.1007/s10841-015-9826-x