Phylogenetic diversity of geometrid moths decreases with elevation in the tropical Andes

Brehm, Gunnar; Strutzenberger, Patrick; Fiedler, Konrad

doi:10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00030.x

Cited by 39 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 57 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We hypothesize that colonization in South America has usually started in the large lowlands and that the colonization of mountains was impeded by environmental filtering, such as the availability of certain host plants that are not present at higher elevations in the Andes or other Neotropical mountain ranges, as suggested, for example, for Neotropical geometrid moths (Brehm et al . ). Some genera of arctiines also occur at high elevations or are even restricted to high‐elevation habitats.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Systematics and origin of moths in the subfamily Arctiinae (Lepidoptera, Erebidae) in the Neotropical region

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The availability of standard protocols to obtain DNA sequences has allowed the inference of phylogenetic Hypotheses for many taxa, including moths. We here have inferred a phylogeny using maximum‐Likelihood and Bayesian approaches for a species‐rich group of moths (Erebidae, Arctiinae), with strong emphasis on Neotropical genera collected in different field campaigns in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, eastern Amazon and southern Ecuador. A total of 277 species belonging to 246 genera were included in the analysis. Our main objectives were to shed light on the relationships between suprageneric groups, especially subtribes, and hypothesize colonization events in and out of the Neotropics. The monophyly of Arctiinae and its four tribes (Lithosiini, Amerilini, Syntomini and Arctiini) was recovered in the ML and Bayesian trees. Three Lithosiini subtribes previously found and two additional species groups were recovered monophyletic in both phylogenetic estimation methods. In Arctiini, the monophyly of Spilosomina and Arctiina was highly supported in the ML and Bayesian trees, but the monophyly of Ctenuchina and Echromiina was weakly supported in the ML tree and absent in the Bayesian tree; the remaining subtribes were paraphyletic and, in the case of Phageopterina, formed several species groups. The mapping of species occurrence in our ML tree suggests that Arctiinae have an Old World origin and that the Neotropical region was colonized at least six times independently. Our analysis also suggests that a number of species that occur in Neotropical and other zoogeographic regions may have originated in the Neotropics, although further taxon sampling is required to support this hypothesis. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a highly speciose group of tropical moths is well covered in a phylogeny, and it seems plausible that the results reported here may be extendable to other species‐rich tropical undersampled moth taxa.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Systematics and origin of moths in the subfamily Arctiinae (Lepidoptera, Erebidae) in the Neotropical region

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, in an Ecuadorian study, within the Geometridae, moths of the subfamily Larentiinae were on average smaller than moths of the subfamily Ennominae, and proportions of subfamilies in the local fauna changed along an elevational gradient (Brehm and Fiedler 2003, 2004, Fiedler et al 2008, Brehm et al 2013. For example, in an Ecuadorian study, within the Geometridae, moths of the subfamily Larentiinae were on average smaller than moths of the subfamily Ennominae, and proportions of subfamilies in the local fauna changed along an elevational gradient (Brehm and Fiedler 2003, 2004, Fiedler et al 2008, Brehm et al 2013.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moth body size increases with elevation along a complete tropical elevational gradient for two hyperdiverse clades

Brehm¹,

Zeuss

Colwell

2018

Ecography

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The body size of an animal is probably its most important functional trait. For arthropods, environmental drivers of body size variation are still poorly documented and understood, especially in tropical regions. We use a unique dataset for two speciesrich, phylogenetically independent moth taxa (Lepidoptera: Geometridae; Arctiinae), collected along an extensive tropical elevational gradient in Costa Rica, to investigate the correlates and possible causes of body-size variation. We studied 15 047 specimens (794 species) of Geometridae and 4167 specimens (308 species) of Arctiinae to test the following hypotheses: 1) body size increases with decreasing ambient temperature, as predicted by the temperature-size rule; 2) body size increases with increasing rainfall and primary productivity, as predicted from considerations of starvation resistance; and 3) body size scales allometrically with wing area, as elevation increases, such that wing loading (the ratio of body size to wing area) decreases with increasing elevation to compensate for lower air density.To test these hypotheses, we examined forewing length as a proxy for body size in relation to ambient temperature, rainfall, vegetation index and elevation as explanatory variables in linear and polynomial spatial regression models. We analysed our data separately for males and females using two principal approaches: mean forewing length of species at each site, and mean forewing length of complete local assemblages, weighted by abundance.Body size consistently increased with elevation in both taxa, both approaches, both sexes, and also within species. Temperature was the best predictor for this pattern (-0.98 < r < -0.74), whereas body size was uncorrelated or weakly correlated with rainfall and enhanced vegetation index. Wing loading increased with elevation. Our results support the temperature-size rule as an important mechanism for body size variation in arthropods along tropical elevational gradients, whereas starvation resistance and optimization of flight mechanics seem to be of minor importance.

show abstract

“…The species loss pattern can be related to physiological limitations of species ). Using phylogenetic information, Brehm et al (2013) showed that Geometrid moth assemblages at higher elevations of Andean mountains are phylogenetically clustered, indicating the loss of species richness due to environmental filtering at upslope sites. As this species loss did not increase linearly with elevation, it cannot be linked to available area, i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These studies have pointed out the importance of a wide variety of factors on the generation of biodiversity such as historical geology, specialization and topographical variation (e.g. Brehm et al 2013;Pyrcz et al 2013). Yet both types of studies have been conducted mostly in tropical regions and cannot simply be generalized to the temperate BH regions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Geographical patterns of species richness and beta diversity of Larentiinae moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) in two temperate biodiversity hotspots

Paknia

2015

J Insect Conserv

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biodiversity hotspots have been in the mainstream of studies and debates regarding conservation and biodiversity. Results, however, are skewed towards vertebrates and the tropics, and cannot simply be generalized to invertebrates and temperate biodiversity hotspot regions. In this first study of its kind, we explored the spatial patterns of Larentiinae moth (except genus Eupithecia Curtis, 1825) species richness and beta diversity in two neighbouring temperate biodiversity hotspots, the Caucasus and the Irano-Anatolian biodiversity hotspots, Middle Palearctic. We explored how spatial gradients contribute to the formation of moth species richness in these two biodiversity hotspots by disentangling beta diversity patterns to spatial turnover and nestedness components. Larentiinae moths showed a positive association with latitude and a unimodal relationship with elevation. The latitudinal gradient contributed more than the elevational gradient in formation of biodiversity. Both hotspots showed similar patterns of beta diversity partitioning, demonstrating a large contribution of spatial turnover to biodiversity formation. Constant high values of spatial turnover across 17°of latitudinal gradient may indicate that diversity has been formed by a consistent mechanism of horizontal species level diversification of larentine moths throughout mountains.

show abstract

Phylogenetic diversity of geometrid moths decreases with elevation in the tropical Andes

Cited by 39 publications

References 57 publications

Systematics and origin of moths in the subfamily Arctiinae (Lepidoptera, Erebidae) in the Neotropical region

Systematics and origin of moths in the subfamily Arctiinae (Lepidoptera, Erebidae) in the Neotropical region

Moth body size increases with elevation along a complete tropical elevational gradient for two hyperdiverse clades

Geographical patterns of species richness and beta diversity of Larentiinae moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) in two temperate biodiversity hotspots

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About