This award is to support a cooperative research project by Dr. David Spencer Smith of Florida International University and Dr. S. Azhar Hasan of the Pakistan Museum of Natural History in Islamabad. The research is to extend the study of butterfly fauna of the Karakoram region in northern Pakistan to include the region between Gilgit (elevation 4,500 ft) through Nagar/Hunza to the Sino-Pakistan border (16,000 ft). Until recently, this region was inaccessible, and it remains a conspicuous gap in knowledge of the biology of Pakistan more poorly known than the adjacent areas of Central Asia including Afghanistan and the eastern Himalayan. The terrain is an extremely complex system of high mountains and valleys, with vegetation substantially restricted to glacier-fed stream courses and irrigated land at lower elevations, with extensive arid mountain slopes. The study area comprises the Indus valley and selected side valleys, to assess evolution of faunal diversification through isolation, including genetic study. Diversity of species/subspecies will be assessed in the context of altitudinal/ecological zonation, range, phenology and ingress of Oriental taxa into a largely Palaearctic biogeographical zone. Scope: The project includes field and laboratory studies intended to extend the knowledge of biodiversity of the Himalayan region in general, and in particular will contribute to the research and training programs of the cooperating institutions. It will help with the conservation strategies of the Pakistan Museum of Natural History. The project brings the expertise and skills of the US scientist with the domestic resources available to the staff of the Museum of Natural History in Islamabad. These resources include access to and familiarity with the terrain, the habitat, and the use of lands in the region to be studied, as well as the experiences of the Museum staff. Dr. Hasan is the Curator of the Zoological Sciences Division of the Museum. He has a Ph.D. degree from Oxford University and has numerous publications on butterflies of Pakistan. The collaboration should benefit the US and Pakistani researchers. This project meets INT objective of supporting U.S.-foreign collaboration when it is mutually beneficial. The project is partially supported by the Division of Environmental Biology.
