Temporal Variation in and Influence of Environmental Variables on a Lepidopteran Community in a Mediterranean Mid-Mountain Area

The temporal variation in a community of nocturnal and diurnal Lepidoptera was studied in a Mediterranean mid-mountain area of the SW Iberian Peninsula between 2017 and 2019. Monthly samplings that allowed for the identification of 3528 specimens, belonging to 373 species from 40 different families,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Diversity (Basel) 2024-07, Vol.16 (7), p.408
Main Authors: Bernabé-Ruiz, Pedro M, Jiménez-Nieva, Francisco J, Pérez-Quintero, Juan C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance
Biogeography
Butterflies & moths
Climate change
Climatic changes
Deforestation
diversity conservation
Endangered & extinct species
Flowers & plants
Forests
Geometrid moths
Habitats
Land use
Lepidoptera
Mediterranean area
Mountain regions
Mountainous areas
Mountains
Phenology
Precipitation
Radiation
Relative humidity
Seasonal variations
Solar radiation
Spain
species richness
Temperature
Temporal variations
United Kingdom
Variance analysis
Voltinism
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Summary:The temporal variation in a community of nocturnal and diurnal Lepidoptera was studied in a Mediterranean mid-mountain area of the SW Iberian Peninsula between 2017 and 2019. Monthly samplings that allowed for the identification of 3528 specimens, belonging to 373 species from 40 different families, also provided data on the temporal and seasonal variation in richness and the abundance (dominated by Geometridae and Noctuidae), diet type (mainly oligophagous), voltinism (mostly univoltine) and biogeography of the community, primarily Mediterranean in scope. Richness, abundance and diversity were also found to be highly positively correlated with temperature and solar radiation, and less negatively correlated with precipitation and humidity. Canonical correspondence analyses (CCAs) also indicate that temperature and radiation are the climatic variables with the greatest influence on species occurrence over the different months of the year. The CCAs gave a cumulative variance value of 84.79% when using the monthly mean values of temperature, solar radiation and minimum relative humidity, and 86.4% if only monovoltine species were considered. Guidelines to maintain diversity in the environment of the study area are provided. It is possible that the area may function as a refuge area for Lepidoptera in the face of climate change and deforestation that are occurring in the geographical environment.
ISSN:1424-2818
1424-2818
DOI:10.3390/d16070408