This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
In many tropical lowland rain forests, topographic variation increases environmental heterogeneity, thus contributing to the extraordinary biodiversity of tropical lowland forests. While a growing number of studies have addressed effects of topographic differences on tropical insect communities at regional scales (e.g., along extensive elevational gradients), surprisingly little is known about topographic effects at smaller spatial scales. The present study investigates moth assemblages in a topographically heterogeneous lowland rain forest landscape, at distances of less than a few hundred meters, in the Golfo Dulce region (SW Costa Rica). Three moth lineages—Erebidae–Arctiinae (tiger and lichen moths), the bombycoid complex, and Geometridae (inchworm moths)—were examined by means of automatic light traps in three different forest types: creek forest, slope forest, and ridge forest. Altogether, 6,543 individuals of 419 species were observed. Moth assemblages differed significantly between the three forest types regarding species richness, total abundance, and species composition. Moth richness and abundance increased more than fourfold and eightfold from creek over slope to ridge forest sites. All three taxonomic units showed identical biodiversity patterns, notwithstanding their strong differences in multiple eco‐morphological traits. An indicator species analysis revealed that most species identified as characteristic were associated either with the ridge forest alone or with ridge plus slope forests, but very few with the creek forest. Despite their mobility, local moth assemblages are highly differentially filtered from the same regional species pool. Hence, variation in environmental factors significantly affects assemblages of tropical moth species at small spatial scales.
Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.