Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T05:45:22.603Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Moth diversity of a tropical forest in Peninsular Malaysia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

H. S. Barlow
Affiliation:
PO Box 10139, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
I. P. Woiwod
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, England

Abstract

A standard Rothamsted light trap was operated for slightly over 12 months from the end of September 1979 to October 1980 at Genting Sempah, Pahang in Malaysia. All specimens of macrolepidoptera families together with the Pyralidae were identified, counted and recorded. The numbers of species caught were compared with those obtained by a different method at a nearby site for over 10 years. Diversity, biomass and seasonality of the catch were compared with identically sampled populations in Great Britain and New Zealand. The Genting Sempah trap had very high diversity and biomass compared with the temperate samples and exhibited much less seasonality. The Pyralidae and other families (excluding Noctuidae and Geometridae) formed a much higher component of diversity in Genting than in Britain. The log-normal distribution fits the data better than the log-series. So the inter-quartile slope, Q, is the correct parameter for interfaunal comparisons.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

ANON. 19801986. Heterocera Sumatrana. Various authors. Obtainable from E. W. Classey Ltd, UK.Google Scholar
Barlow, H. S. 1982. An introduction to the moths of South East Asia. Kuala Lumpur: the author.Google Scholar
Corbet, A. S. 1941. The distribution of butterflies in the Malay Peninsula (Lepid.). Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London (A) 16:101116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cumber, R. A. 1951. Flight records of Lepidoptera taken with a modified Rothamsted light trap operated at Paiaka. New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology B 33:187190.Google Scholar
Dixon, A. F. G. 1985. Aphid ecology. Blackie, Glasgow and London.Google Scholar
Fisher, R. A., Corbet, A. S. & Williams, C. B. 1943. The relation between the number of individuals in a random sample of an animal population. Journal of Animal Ecology 12:4258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gauld, I. D. 1986. Latitudinal gradients in ichneumonid species richness in Australia. Ecological Entomology 11:155161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hails, C. J. 1982. A comparison of tropical and temperate aerial insect abundance. Biotropica 14 (4): 310313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hebert, P. D. N. 1980. Moth communities in montane Papua New Guinea. Journal of Animal Ecology 49:593602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holloway, J. D. 1976. The moths of Borneo with special reference to Mount Kinabalu. Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.Google Scholar
Holloway, J. D. 1980. Insect Surveys – an approach to environmental monitoring. Atti XII Congresso Nazionale Italiano Entomologia. Roma, 1:231261.Google Scholar
Holloway, J. D. 1983. The moths of Borneo, Part VI. Notodontidae. Malayan Nature Journal 37: parts 1 and 2.Google Scholar
Holloway, J. D. 1984. The larger moths of the Gunung Mulu National Park; a preliminary assessment of their distribution, ecology, and potential as environmental indicators. The Sarawak Museum Journal XXX, 51:150191.Google Scholar
Holloway, J. D. 1985a. Moths as indicator organisms for categorizing rain-forest and monitoring changes and regeneration processes. Tropical Rain Forest; The Leeds Symposium 235242.Google Scholar
Holloway, J. D. 1985b. The moths of Borneo, Part XIV. Euteliinae, Stictopterinae, Plusiinae, Pan-theinae. Malayan Nature Journal 38: parts 3 and 4.Google Scholar
Holloway, J. D. 1986. The moths of Borneo, Part I. Malayan Nature Journal 40:Google Scholar
Holloway, J. D. 1987. Macrolepidoptera diversity in the Indo-Australian tropics: geographic, biotopic and taxonomic variations. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 30:325341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurlbert, S. H. 1971. The nonconcept of species diversity: a critique and alternative parameters. Ecology 52:577586.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Janzen, D. H. & Pond, C. M. 1975. A comparison, by sweep sampling, of arthropod fauna of secondary vegetation in Michigan, England and Costa Rica. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 127:3350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kempton, R. A. 1979. The structure of species abundance and the measurement of diversity. Biometrics 35:307321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kempton, R. A. & Taylor, L. R. 1974. Log-series and log-normal parameters as diversity discriminants for the Lepidoptera. Journal of Animal Ecology 43:381399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kempton, R. A. & Taylor, L. R. 1976. Models and statistics for species diversity. Nature 262:818820.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Owen, D. F. & Owen, J. 1974. Species diversity in temperate and tropical Ichneumonidae. Nature 249:583584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owen, J., Townes, H. & Townes, M. 1981. Species diversity of Ichneumonidae and Serphidae (Hy-menoptera) in an English suburban garden. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 16:315336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putz, F. E. 1979. Aseasonality in Malaysian tree phenology. The Malaysian Forester 42:124.Google Scholar
Ross, G. J. S. 1980. MLP manual. Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. R. 1978. Bates, Williams, Hutchinson - a variety of diversities. In Mound, L. A. & Waloff, N. (eds). Diversity of insect faunas. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. R. 1986. Synoptic dynamics, migration and the Rothamsted Insect Survey. Journal of Animal Ecology 55:138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, L. R. & French, R. A. 1974. Effects of light-trap design and illumination on samples of moths in an English woodland. Bulletin of Entomological Research 63:583594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, L. R., Kempton, R. A. & Woiwod, I. P. 1976. Diversity statistics and the log-series model. Journal of Animal Ecology 45:255271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, L. R., Woiwod, I. P., Harrington, R., Nicklen, Joan & Dupuch Maureen, J. 1985. Synoptic monitoring for migrant insect pests in Great Britain and Western Europe. VI. Revised nomenclature for aphids and moths, analytical tables for spatial and temporal species parameters and light trap sampling site distributions. Rothamsted Experimental Station Report for 1980, Part 2, 41104.Google Scholar
Turner, J. R. G., Gatehouse, C. M. & Corey, C. A. 1987. Does solar energy control organic diversity? Butterflies, moths and British climate. Oikos 48:192205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitmore, T. C. 1984. Tropical rainforests of the Far East. 2nd ed.Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Williams, C. B. 1948. The Rothamsted light trap. Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London A, 23:8085.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, C. B. 1964. Patterns in the balance of nature and related problems in quantitative ecology. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Wolda, H. 1978a. Fluctuations in abundance of tropical insects. The American Naturalist 112:10171045.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolda, H. 1978b. Seasonal fluctuations in rainfall, food and abundance of tropical insects. Journal of Animal Ecology 47:369381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolda, H. 1983. Diversity, diversity indices and tropical cockroaches. Oecologia 58:290298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed