A survey of 6,000 trap/hours using fruit-bait traps was conducted, in order to characterize the community of fruit-feeding butterflies and their seasonal variation in a semiarid area of NE Brazil, which exhibits a highly seasonal rainfall regime. The community was composed of 15 species, the four most abundant comprising more than 80% of the total individuals. In the first sampling month, 80% of the species had already been recorded. A strong positive correlation was found between butterfly abundance and precipitation of the sampled year. The highly seasonal pattern of the studied community may be related to the availability of both larvae and adult food resources. The endemic Fountainea halice moretta presented the highest positive correlations with other butterfly species and with total butterfly abundance and illustrates well the seasonal variation of the whole community. Hamadryas februa was the only species trapped in all sampling months, probably due to the ability of adults to aestivate during the dryer months. The open and more disturbed sample area showed higher abundance of butterflies in the rainy season and lower abundance in the dry season. Both abundance and richness were affected by season in a manner that the rainy period had significantly more individuals and species. 1. Introduction Butterflies attracted to fruitbaits have been extensively studied in the past two decades to evaluate the conservation state of natural areas, effects of land management and fragmented habitat, monitoring of populations and to assess ecological parameters [1–7]. In the neotropics, the frugivorous trophic guild constitutes a considerable portion of the family Nymphalidae and is formed by Charaxinae, Biblidinae, Morphinae, Satyrinae, and Nymphalinae: Coeini. Butterflies in these groups feed mainly on the juices of fermented fruits but also on dung, plant exudates, and carrion [8]. In Brazil, studies of this guild have been conducted in rainforests [7, 9–11] and Cerrado [12, 13]. In the dry northeastern part of the country, the Caatinga, the only lepidopteran group methodically studied, is the family Sphingidae [14, 15] stated as highly seasonal in this ecosystem. Regarding butterflies, a single checklist is available for this area [16], but there are no studies concerning its fruit-feeding butterfly fauna. The Caatinga covers an area of approximately 800,000？km2, which is about 10% of the Brazilian territory [17]. It is mainly a thorn-shrub succulent savanna with several physiognomies, depending on local rain regime and soil constitution. It is characterized
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