Relationship between moth (night active Lepidoptera) diversity and vegetation characteristics in southern Sweden

Torbjörn Tyler

doi:10.1007/s10841-020-00270-y

Abstract

The diversity and community composition of moths (both macro- and micromoths) at 32 sites, representing a wide range of habitat types (forests, grasslands, wetlands, agricultural and urban areas) within a restricted region in central Scania, southern-most Sweden, was investigated by use of light moth traps and compared with vascular plant species richness and habitat characteristics. The results revealed a highly significant general association between vegetation composition and the composition of the moth community and multivariate (CCA) analyses indicated light availability and soil fertility parameters (pH and macronutrients) to be the habitat characteristics that best correlated with moth community composition. Less strong, but still significant, positive relationships between moth abundance and local vascular plant diversity were also revealed. Moth species richness was positively correlated with diversity of woody plant genera in the neighborhood, but not with local vascular plant diversity in general. As for more general site characteristics, there were tendencies for higher moth richness and abundance at sites with more productive soils (well-drained, high pH, high nutrient availability), while shading/tree canopy cover, management, soil disturbance regimes and nectar production appeared unrelated to moth community parameters. It is concluded that local moth assemblages are strongly influenced by site characteristics and vegetation composition.Implications for insect conservation:The results show that obtaining moth data on a local scale is useful for conservation planning and does not need to be very cumbersome. Local moth assemblages monitored are indeed related to local site characteristics of conservation relevance.

Highlights

IntroductionVarious groups of night active Lepidoptera (members of e.g. Geometroidea, Noctuoidea, Bombycoidea, Tortricoidea, Pyraloidea, Yponomeutoidea and Gelechioidea) constitute a significant part of the biodiversity in many regions of the world
Various groups of night active Lepidoptera constitute a significant part of the biodiversity in many regions of the world
The number of vascular plant genera within 5 m distance from the trapping site ranged between 7 and 90 with a mean of 35.5, and the number of woody plant genera within sight from the trap ranged between 3 and 25 with a mean of 10.7 with the lowest and highest plant diversity observed in a beech forest on acid soil and in a partially wooded meadow, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Various groups of night active Lepidoptera (members of e.g. Geometroidea, Noctuoidea, Bombycoidea, Tortricoidea, Pyraloidea, Yponomeutoidea and Gelechioidea) constitute a significant part of the biodiversity in many regions of the world. These insects have several ecologically important roles, as herbivores and as a food resource for other insects, birds and bats (Vaughan 1997), and some of them are important as pollinators of particular plant species (e.g. some Orchids and many members of Caryophyllaceae). Sorg et al 2013) calls for an increased awareness of these organisms, but the ecology of many moth species is still very incompletely known This goes for the night-active insects including Lepidoptera (Franzén and Johannesson 2007; Groenendijk and Ellis 2011). Our knowledge about the host plants for the larval stages of many moths are strongly biased towards cultivated,

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