Abstract
<jats:p>Lantana camara (LCa) is an invasive alien flora that invaded most of the terrestrial zones of Indian subcontinent. But, the studies on flower color-specific interaction between LCa and nectaring butterflies with respect to proboscis length remain limited. The study was conducted in a highly disturbed sub-urban area in Kolkata Metropolis, West Bengal during spring-early summer of 2019.The study aims to emphasis on the butterfly diversity, dependency level, flower preferences and proboscis length on the Lantana patches of this extremely disturbed landscape. Total 19 species of butterflies under 4 different families were observed with Papilionidae (59.93%) was predominant, followed by Nymphalidae (20.05%), Pieridae (19.55%) and Lycaenidae (0.04%). Among the species, Tailed Jay (RVF= 0.28) was mostly observed throughout study period but one way ANOVA and Duncan Multiple Range Test have shown that only Common Albatross, Peacock Pansy and Plains Cupid depict significant variation (p<0.05) in different months. Yellow coloured flowers were mostly preferred by butterflies followed by white and pink. Notably, Blue Tiger, Indian Palm Bob, Painted Lady, Peacock Pansy and Plains Cupid are exclusive yellow colour visitors. However, mean corolla length of the LCa florets were detected 1.5 cm, significant variation among three colour types was observed (p<0.05). Even, the study have confirmed the variation (p<0.05) of proboscis lengths within the same and different observed butterfly families. The study suggests the proboscides lengths are not solely dependent on the corolla structure and provides insightful information for the first time on the proboscides of some butterflies from a highly disturbed habitat of the Indian subcontinent.</jats:p>