Diversity and composition of Amazonian moths in primary, secondary and plantation forests

Abstract

The response of tropical fauna to landscape-level habitat change is poorly understood. Increased conversion of native primary forest to alternative land-uses, including secondary forest and exotic tree plantations, highlights the importance of assessing diversity patterns within these forest types. We sampled 1848 moths from 335 species of Arctiidae, Saturniidae and Sphingidae, over a total of 30 trap-nights. Sampling was conducted during the wet season 2005, using three light-traps at 15 sites within areas of primary forest, secondary forest and Eucalyptus urograndis plantations in northern Brazilian Amazonia. The Jari study region provides one of the best opportunities to investigate the ecological consequences of land-use change, and this study is one of the first to examine patterns of diversity for a neotropical moth assemblage in a human-dominated landscape in lowland Amazonia. We found that the three moth families responded consistently to disturbance in terms of abundance and community structure but variably in terms of species richness, in a manner apparently supporting a life-history hypothesis. Our results suggest that secondary forests and Eucalyptus plantations can support a substantial level of moth diversity but also show that these forest types hold assemblages with significantly distinct community structures and composition from primary forest. In addition, the ability of these converted land-uses to support primary forest species may be enhanced by proximity to surrounding primary forest, an issue which requires consideration when assessing the diversity and composition of mobile taxa in human-dominated landscapes

Species composition and temporal activity of Arctiinae (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) in two cerrado vegetation types

“…Abundance would drop to 32% and richness to 54% if the samplings were restricted to the first two hours after dark. Thus, we suggest that future rapid assessments or surveys of nocturnal Lepidoptera should be performed throughout the entire night, as in previous studies (BITTENCOURT et al 2003, DUARTE JÚNIOR & SCHLINDWEIN 2005, AMORIM et al 2009, HAWES et al 2009). …”

“…Thus, annual collections (BITTENCOURT et al 2003, TESTON & CORSEUIL 2004, DUARTE-JÚNIOR & SCHLINDWEIN 2005, AMORIM et al 2009, TESTON & DELFINA 2010 are more effective for capturing species richness than those performed only in the rainy season (SPECHT et al 2005, FERRO & DINIZ 2007, HAWES et al 2009. Similarly, increasing the intervals between nocturnal sampling would cause an increase of species sampled.…”

Population Dynamics of Lepidoptera Pests in Eucalyptus urophylla Plantations in the Brazilian Amazonia

“…Psorocampa denticulata showed low abundance of occurrence. It did not occur in most years, and showed reduced frequency in the total number of individuals; however, it is one of the most frequent in other Brazilian regions [6,11,12,16] during periods of rainfall [11]. This species exhibits diapause in the pre-pupal stage and requires periods of low and high humidity to complete the cycle.…”

Diversidade de Arctiinae (Lepidoptera, Arctiidae) em área alterada em Altamira, Amazônia Oriental, Pará, Brasil

“…Os lepidópteros, uma das principais ordens de insetos quanto à riqueza de espécies, são adequadas para estudos sobre a biodiversidade (Intachat & Woiwod, 1999;Landau et al, 1999;Kitching et al, 2000;Hawes et al, 2009). Os arctiídeos estão entre as principais famílias de lepidópteros noturnos utilizados em monitoramento de ecossistemas naturais (Hilty & Merenlender, 2000;Freitas et al, 2006) e alguns estudos mais recentes vêm ressaltando esta importância (Hilt & Fiedler, 2005;2006;Brehm & Axmacher, 2006;Brehm, 2007;Hilt, et al, 2007;Conner, 2009;Hawes et al, 2009).…”

“…Os arctiídeos estão entre as principais famílias de lepidópteros noturnos utilizados em monitoramento de ecossistemas naturais (Hilty & Merenlender, 2000;Freitas et al, 2006) e alguns estudos mais recentes vêm ressaltando esta importância (Hilt & Fiedler, 2005;2006;Brehm & Axmacher, 2006;Brehm, 2007;Hilt, et al, 2007;Conner, 2009;Hawes et al, 2009). Na região Neotropical são conhecidas 4.761 espécies de Arctiinae (Heppner, 1991).…”