Abstract:
The butterflies are diurnal and very attractive organisms with the aesthetical and
economical values. Ecologists use the butterflies as the model organism to study
the impact of the habitat loss and climatic change. Preliminary study of the
butterflies and its feeding behaviour not as great in Batticaloa district. Therefore,
the present study was carried out to assess the feeding behaviour in Monarch
butterfly during the morning and evening hours of a day. The objective of this
study was to assess the feeding behaviour of butterfly in morning and evening
hours and the detailed ethogram steps of feeding behaviour of butterfly. The
present study was carried out in a selected home garden in Batticaloa during the
period of February to March 2016.The Monarch butterfly was observed with 10
minutes interval per hour. The time taken for each feeding was recorded in seconds
for both morning and evening hours. Totally 15 trials were taken on each attempt
during the period of study. The time taken for the feeding in each time was
recorded by digital stopwatch and Canon EOS digital camera. Data were analyzed
statistically using Microsoft Excel 2013 for Chi – square test. Results (X2 ,p< 0.05)
of the present study revealed that the feeding behaviour of Monarch butterflies
were significantly high in morning hours in comparing with the evening hours.
