Fermented bananas work best for some butterfly species
Category: research | Date: Feb 11 2009 | By: ngongforest
A scene of plenty of butterflies. in the forest is a show of a healthy ecosystem. Currently a team from ICIPE is carrying out a butterfly inventory project in the forest. The main aim is to identify and come up with a checklist of butterfly species in the forest.Inorder to do this, we have established trap at various location in the forest. Traps are checked every two days. In the traps, pieces of fermented banana mixed with alcohol and dilute sugar are placed to attract butterflies,
Solution placed in the trap
the main species attracted by this is the Charaxes candrope, a species that is abundant in Ngong forest.
Flower loving butterflies especially Papionidae family , we use hand nets to trap them. These exercise is quite challenging, some butterflies fly too high!
The collected butterfly species are preserved and prepared for display in the Education Centre Museum.
Sample preparation
Getting to identify and finding different species , especially the most rare species is our joy.
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