Crepuscular and Nocturnal Hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) from a Fragment of Atlantic Rainforest in the State of São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil

Abstract

A survey of the richness, abundance and species composition of Sphingidae (Lepidoptera) was performed in a fragment of Atlantic Rainforest at the Serra do Japi Biological Reserve, Municipality of Jundiaí, state of São Paulo, Brazil. Sampling was done monthly, on 2 consecutive nights, from Dec 2011 to Oct 2012, totaling 264 hours of sampling effort. The hawkmoths were attracted by a light trap. Our results were compared with data from a survey of Sphingidae carried out in another fragment of Atlantic Rainforest, i.e., at the Boraceia Biological Station, Municipality of Salesópolis, São Paulo. Richness estimators, rarefaction curves and rank/abundance plots were used to describe the assemblage sampled in this study and to compare it with the data set from Boraceia. We collected 462 specimens, members of 3 subfamilies, 5 tribes, 18 genera and 39 species. Callionima parce (Fabricius) was the most abundant species, comprising 33% of the individuals. Orecta lycidas (Boisduval), an under-sampled species in the Atlantic Rainforest, was recorded for the first time in the area of Serra do Japi. The assemblage showed lower species richness and evenness than the assemblage at Boraceia, probably due to differences in climate, vegetation and size of the forest fragment in which the reserves are situated. Nevertheless, our results emphasize the importance of the Serra do Japi Biological Reserve for the fauna of Lepidoptera of the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest.

Diversity patterns of hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) in the canopy of an ombrophilous forest in Central Amazon, Brazil

“…For this reason, we encourage other studies to consider a similar sampling effort in order to maximize the representativeness of species diversity in hawkmoth surveys. Most of the recorded species belong to Macroglossinae, a subfamily that often has high species richness and abundance in both Amazonian (Motta et al 1991;Motta et al 1998;Motta and Andreazze 2001;Motta and Xavier Filho 2005) and non-Amazonian landscapes in Brazil (Laroca and Mielke 1975;Ferreira et al 1986;Laroca et al 1989;Marinoni et al 1999;Darrault and Schlindwein 2002;Gusmão and Creão-Duarte 2004;Duarte Jr. and Schlindwein 2005a;b;Duarte et al 2008, Vieira et al 2015. In particular, the tribe Dilophonotini, the most species-rich tribe in our survey, comprises about 58% of the hawkmoth species richness registered from the Amazon (Camargo 2016a).…”

Long-term stability of the hawkmoth fauna (Lepidoptera, Sphingidae) in a protected area of Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest

“…The sole differences observed are related to seasonality, which separated the hawkmoth fauna of the wetter/warmer period from the less wet/colder period in both surveys. Seasonality is an important factor affecting the annual distribution of other hawkmoth assemblages across the Americas (Janzen 1984;Haber and Frankie 1989;Amorim et al 2009;Vieira et al 2015;Sazatornil et al 2016).…”

Automatic autonomous light traps and their usage for the quantitative accountingon example of hawkmoths of Kyrgyzstan (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)

“…The light trapping is used for studies of some aspects of the hawkmoths ecology, including fauna, seasonality, flight period, etc. (Beck, Linsenmair, 2006;Duarte, Schlindwein, 2008;Vieira et al, 2015).…”