The biogeographical analysis of a transect sample of the moth fauna of Mt. Kinabalu, Sabah, using numerical methods

Abstract

In this paper the collection and analysis of a sample of moths made on an altitude transect on Mt. Kinabalu, Sabah, are described. The geological and phytogeographical histories of the mountain are reviewed. Single-link cluster analysis is used to pick out faunal elements in the transect. The geographical affinities of the species composing these elements are investigated and discussed. As with the flora, species in the lowland elements belong largely to centric groups (with centres of speciation coincident with the locality concerned) of the south-east Asian rain forest regions. Increasingly higher elements have an increasing representation of species from eccentric groups. In the flora these eccentric groups are Himalayan and south temperate in roughly equal proportions. In the moth (and bird) fauna they are almost entirely Himalayan centred. Distribution of montane habitats during the Pleistocene glaciations favoured the colonization of Kinabalu from sources to the south-east. An explanation is presented for the contrast between flora and moth fauna on Kinabalu in terms of the relative development of these groups in the two source areas.