Butterflies (Lepidoptera; Papilionoidea) are charismatic and well-studied insects. Beyond their delightful colors and behaviors, they can also serve as important indicators of plant communities and overall ecosystem health. Landscape health can have a major impact on the abundance and diversity of these animals as they are particularly susceptible to land use patterns, particularly in agricultural systems. In this study we quantified the diversity and abundance of butterfly and day flying moths across a growing season. We sampled from two different sites across Southern Utah County, Utah. Samples were taken from a working farm with a diversity of crops and natural buffers that use organic practices and compared to typical regional farms of monocultures and non-organic practices. Surveys were don’t biweekly using time area counts based on crop type. We anticipate that the more complex farm will have greater butterfly diversity and abundance and that this will be driven primarily by the flowering phenology of diverse plant species.
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