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

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.

摘要：秘鲁东南部天蛾呈现出清晰的低海拔偏态单峰物种丰富度格局。针对此类分布格局，多项假说均提供了合乎情理的解释。水热动态的影响在高海拔区域温度与物种丰富度间的强相关性中得到了部分支持。此外，植物多样性影响天蛾分布范围的假说也得到了验证——物种丰富度在过渡生境中达到峰值。天蛾科（Sphingidae）各亚科似乎不受生境类型或海拔相关因素（如温度）的影响。这意味着，除非研究样地的干扰水平存在差异，否则基于亚科的分析难以有效表征天蛾群落组成。本研究基于采集自秘鲁东南部5个样地的7545号标本，共记录到天蛾科23属134种。