Habitat monitoring of an endangered Asian butterfly, Teinopalpus aureus (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) and change in local residents’ conservation awareness

Teinopalpus aureus (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) is endemic to the mountains of southern China and Vietnam. This butterfly species was the focus of several high profile poaching cases in China and influenced conservation policies in the country because of this attention. In this study we closely monitored 2.25 km 2 of the butterfly’s known habitat in Mt. Dayao Nature Reserve, Guangxi Province, China, from 2012 to 2014. A total of 33 magnolia host plants were found in the plot, and 28 individuals were reared from the egg/early larval stage until they pupated or died. We found T. aureus sufficiently difficult to breed and failed to induce oviposition in captivity. In 2015, a public museum was built in Mt. Dayao Nature Reserve to raise conservation awareness of local biodiversity, which specifically featured an exhibition of T. aureus . To investigate whether the museum was effective in increasing local conservation awareness, in 2013, 2015 and 2017, a total of 1022 local residents were interviewed regarding their conservation awareness of the butterfly. Conservation awareness significantly increased with time from 2013 to 2017, but this was also strongly influenced by residence location and respondent age.