Background/Question/Methods Temperate savannas and grasslands are globally threatened so restoration of habitats to low and intermediate canopy cover is often a landscape conservation goal. Understanding how animal species react to such changes in vegetation structure is important for assessing likely outcomes of these restoration plans. We examined how butterfly community attributes in northwest Indiana USA, including community composition, richness, and abundance responded to a grassland-to-forest gradient of canopy cover. Results/Conclusions Butterfly community composition under intermediate canopy cover differed significantly from community composition in the most open or closed-canopy habitats. Composition of the plant community in flower was a significant predictor of three assessed attributes of the butterfly community—composition, richness, and abundance. Phenology, expressed as day of- the-year, was also a strong predictor of these butterfly community attributes. Few butterfly species were habitat specialists as adults although canopy cover was a more important predictor of adult community composition than of richness or abundance of butterflies. Therefore, adult butterfly community differences along the canopy cover gradient were less about butterfly communities filled with habitat specialists for different canopy-defined habitats and more about gradual changes in community composition along this gradient. Overall, butterfly community richness was predicted to peak at about 34% canopy cover, butterfly abundance at about 53% canopy cover, community conservation value at about 59% canopy cover, and a combination of desirable conservation attributes–high diversity, high abundance, and high conservation value–was predicted to reach a peak of co-occurrence at about 67% canopy cover suggesting that habitats of intermediate canopy cover might be particularly effective for butterfly conservation in this region.
