Research Projects

The biodiversity of the earth is linked through interactions between species, with the significance of these interactions varying from negligible in unstable environments to dominant in stable environments. This study aims to study the community structure and dynamics of a complex ecological system using tropical butterflies and their associated parasitoid wasps. Butterflies are known as charismatic indicators of biodiversity, and they are highly diverse and important ecologically and evolutionarily. They are also important for controlling agricultural pests, including butterflies, where insecticide use is low. The study aims to identify the composition, structure, and dynamics of a complex tropical savanna butterfly-parasitoid community inhabiting the urban forest grounds of the IISc campus, Bangalore. This will be done through weekly surveys of adult butterflies and systematic rearing of parasitoids from hosts. The study also aims to determine the association of abiotic factors (mainly weather) and biotic factors (food, predation, parasitism) with butterfly species abundances. The food web complexity is expected to be high, and a trophically-structured butterfly-parasitoid food web will be constructed and compared with published equivalents in other biogeographical settings. The realized and potential overlap of the parasitoid community associated with butterfly species on the IISc campus with the same butterfly species known to occur in agricultural settings will be assessed. If few native parasitoids are found, conservation biological control can be achieved, reducing insecticide use.