Species richness and community composition of sphingid moths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) along an elevational gradient in southeast Peru

Clayton A Sublett,John P Janovec,Jerry L Cook

doi:10.3897/zoologia.36.e32938

Abstract

A clear low-elevation skewed unimodal richness pattern is presented for hawkmoths in Southeast Peru. Several hypotheses offer plausible explanations for such a distribution. The effects of water-energy dynamics are partially supported by a strong correlation between temperature and species richness at higher elevations. Further, hypotheses of plant diversity influences on hawkmoth ranges are supported by species richness peaking in transitional habitats. Sphingid subfamilies do not appear to be influenced by habitat type or elevational factors, such as temperature. This may make subfamily analysis a poor means of characterizing sphingid community composition unless study sites vary in the level of disturbance. This study documents 134 species in 23 genera of Sphingidae from five Southeastern Peru sites from the 7,545 specimens collected for the study.

Highlights

One major challenge to studying patterns and mechanisms of biodiversity is finding gradients sufficiently large enough to observe any patterns while limiting confounding factors, such as biogeographical differences, between sites (Beck andChey 2008)
This study aims to 1) describe the species richness and community composition of hawkmoths along an elevational gradient in Southeastern Peru, 2) describe whether species or genera are characteristic of a particular elevational range, and
Hawkins et al (2003) and McCain (2007) noted that with water-energy dynamics the importance of energy depended on the latitude or altitude, and Beck and Chey (2008) stated that temperature could be expected a priori to only be correlated with richness at higher elevations

Summary

Introduction

One major challenge to studying patterns and mechanisms of biodiversity is finding gradients sufficiently large enough to observe any patterns while limiting confounding factors, such as biogeographical differences, between sites (Beck andChey 2008). One major challenge to studying patterns and mechanisms of biodiversity is finding gradients sufficiently large enough to observe any patterns while limiting confounding factors, such as biogeographical differences, between sites Mountains offer one potential solution by providing environmental gradients, such as temperature, area, and habitat, within a limited area, allowing for studies of local biodiversity processes while minimizing confounding factors. One common type of elevational diversity pattern is a mid-elevation diversity peak. Such a pattern was attributed to sampling artifacts (McCoy 1990), but the description of a unimodal pattern in many recent studies

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