Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências ISSN: 0001-3765 [email protected] Academia Brasileira de Ciências Brasil PRIMO, LUIS M.; DUARTE, JOSÉ A.; MACHADO, ISABEL C. Hawkmoth fauna (Sphingidae, Lepidoptera) in a semi-deciduous rainforest remnant: composition, temporal fluctuations, and new records for northeastern Brazil Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, vol. 85, núm. 3, septiembre, 2013, pp. 1177-1188 Academia Brasileira de Ciências Rio de Janeiro, Brasil Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=32728660033 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (2013) 85(3): 1177-1188 (Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences) Printed version ISSN 0001-3765 / Online version ISSN 1678-2690 www.scielo.br/aabc Hawkmoth fauna (Sphingidae, Lepidoptera) in a semi-deciduous rainforest remnant: composition, temporal fluctuations, and new records for northeastern Brazil LUIS M. PRIMO1, JOSÉ A. DUARTE2 and ISABEL C. MACHADO3 1Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia vegetal, universidade Federal de Pernambuco, departamento de Botânica, Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, s/n, Cidade Universitária, 50372-970 Recife, PE, Brasil 2Núcleo de Pesquisa Educacionais do Rio Grande do Norte/NUPERN, BR 101, Km 0, Centro Administrativo, Lagoa Nova, 59064-901 Natal, RN, Brasil 3departamento de Botânica, universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, s/n, Cidade Universitária, 50372-970 Recife, PE, Brasil Manuscript received on July 16, 2012; accepted for publication on March 15, 2013 ABSTRACT We carried out a qualitative and quantitative inventory of the hawkmoth fauna (Sphingidae) of an area of semi-deciduous seasonal rainforest in the state of Pernambuco (Tapacurá Ecological Station), northeastern Brazil. hawkmoths were sampled monthly from October 2004 to February 2007 (27 months). We recorded 31 species from 16 genera, three tribes, and three families. Macroglossinae was the most abundant subfamily and represented ca. 71% of all species. Out of the 277 individuals collected, 88.4% were males. Five new records were made for northeastern Brazil: Enyo gorgon (Cramer, 1777), Perigonia stulta (Herrich- Schäffer, [1854]), Eupyrrhoglossum sagra (Poey, 1832), Nyceryx coffaeae (Walker, 1856) and Xylophanes chiron (drury, 1773). Eight further species were recorded for the first time for the Pernambuco Endemism Center, showing the important role played by Tapacurá Station in preserving the biodiversity of this insect group. Species richness and abundance were directly related to rainfall: about 70% of all individuals were captured during the rainy season. Changes in Sphingidae populations may, however, be caused by other factors that directly affect either larvae and adults of those insects, such as matrix effect and forest fragment size, which influence migration processes and the presence of predators. Key words: dry forest, Pernambuco Endemism Center, phenology, seasonality, Sphingidae abundance and richness, sphingophily. INTRODUCTION As hawkmoths, like all lepidopterans, are Sphingidae (Lepidoptera, Bombycoidea) have a holometabolous insects, their life cycle is very pantropical distribution with approximately 1,200 uniform. The larvae are generally oligophagous. species (Kitching and Cadiou 2000), from which 75% However they may exist in the same subfamily or occur in tropical regions (Haber 1983). In Brazil, this tribe representatives both oligo and polyphagous. family is represented by 29 genera and 210 species. In general, Sphingidae feeding on young However, this number is probably higher as the leaves low in tannin, although many species of available data are still poor (Duarte et al. 2008). Smerinthini (Smerinthinae), as the Saturniidae, feed on leaves rich in tannin (Pittaway 1993). Correspondence to: Isabel Cristina Machado E-mail: [email protected] Except Smerinthini and Sphingulini, adults, in An Acad Bras Cienc (2013) 85 (3) 1178 LUIS M. PRIMO, JOSÉ A. DUARTE and ISABEL C. MACHADO turn, are polyphagous-nectarivorous generalists, MATERIALS AND METHODS which forage on flowers of many species (Kieslev STUDY SITE et al. 1972, Haber and Frankie 1989, Darrault and Schlindwein 2002), and may be responsible The present study was carried out in Tapacurá for 5 to 10% of the pollination of the tropical Ecological Station (Estação Ecológica do Tapacurá), flora (Bawa et al. 1985, haber and Frankie 1989, São Lourenço da Mata municipality, 50 km from Oliveira et al. 2004, Primo 2008). the coast of Pernambuco State (08°01´S, 35°11´W), The Atlantic Forest located to the north northeastern Brazil. The region’s annual rainfall is of São Francisco River is known as the ca. 1,300 mm and the average temperature is 25.5 °C. Pernambuco Endemism Center (sensu Prance There are marked seasons: the rainy season occurs 1987); faunal inventories in its remnants are of from March to August and the dry season between high biogeographic interest. However, there are September and February (ITEP-LAMEPE) (Fig. 1). only two studies on the sphingid fauna in this ecosystem: Duarte and Schlindwein (2005a) and Lopes et al. (2006), both in rainforest areas, but none in dry forest areas (sensu Gentry 1995). Five other inventories have been carried out in northeastern Brazil in other ecosystems, such as Caatinga (Duarte et al. 2001, Duarte and Schlindwein 2005b, Gusmão and Creão-Duarte Fig. 1 - Multiannual rainfall and temperature at the Tapacurá 2004), Ombrophilous Montane Forest - “Brejo de Ecological Station, Pernambuco, Brazil. Source: ITEP (Instituto Altitude” (Gusmão and Creão-Duarte 2004) and de Tecnologia de Pernambuco), São Lourenço da Mata (barragem Tapacurá) station (historical average of 30 years). Tabuleiro (Darrault and Schlindwein 2002). __________ Rainfall - - - - - - - - Temperature Considering that hawkmoths play a vital role in the stability of ecosystems, acting on the The forest remnant area is approximately 400 ha and pollination and reproduction of plant species, the it is surrounded by a matrix of sugar cane plantations main purpose of our study was to improve the basic and pastures. The vegetation is classified as semi- knowledge on these lepidopterans by answering deciduous seasonal rainforest, as the variation the following questions: What is the composition between dry (six months with rainfall below 100 and abundance of sphingids in the area? Is the mm) and rainy seasons imposes seasonality on the phenology of this group seasonal? We also aimed dominant tree species (Andrade-Lima 1960, Veloso to test whether there was a direct relationship et al. 1991). Although there is a floristic similarity between richness and abundance of sphingids and with the rainforest near the Atlantic coast, the semi- rainfall in the dry forest (sensu Gentry 1995), as it deciduous forest shows a relatively less diverse and has been observed in other ecosystems. structurally simpler community (Rodal et al. 2005). This information is essential not only to improve the biogeographic research on this insect SPHINGID SURVEYS group, but also for the management and conser- Sampling was carried out at each new moon over vation of natural environments, mainly dry forests, two consecutive nights, between 5:30 pm and 2:30 which are fast becoming degraded, as they are am, for 27 months, from October 2004 to February located in sites of flat relief that are eminently 2007 (only June 2005 and January 2006 were not suitable for agriculture (Janzen 1988a,b, 1997). sampled), for a total of 486 sampling hours. An Acad Bras Cienc (2013) 85 (3) HAWKMOTH FAUNA IN A SEMI-DECIDUOUS RAINFOREST 1179 To sample the moths, we used a light trap STATISTICAL ANALYSIS composed of a mercury vapor lamp (250 watts) in To test for differences in species richness and a vertical position two meters above the ground in abundance between dry and rainy seasons, as well front of a white cloth of 3 x 2 m. We always set the as the relationship between population size of the trap in the same site: an open area that allowed the most abundant species and annual rainfall, we used light to shine across a large forest area. Pearson’s correlation. Calculations were made Sphingids were collected by hand, using an using the package BioStat 5.0 (Ayres et al. 2007). entomological net, killed with an injection of The relative abundance of hawkmoth species was ethyl acetate ventrally between the thorax and calculated as a percentage of number of individual the abdomen, conserved in individual wax-paper collected monthly in relation to the total of captured envelopes, and later dry-pinned, labeled and individuals. The normality of the data was checked deposited in the collection of the Laboratory of using the Liliefors’ test (Sokal and Rohlf 1995). Floral and Reproductive Biology (Laboratório de Biologia Floral e Reprodutiva), at the RESULTS Botanical Department of Universidade Federal COMPOSITION OF ThE SPHINGID FAUNA de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil. Species were identified using Kitching and Cadiou (2000) and We captured 277 sphingids of 16 genera and 31 additional literature (D´Abrera 1986, Moré et al. species (Table I). The subfamily Macroglossinae 2005). We determined the sex of each individual was most abundant (22 species, 70.96%) followed by by the morphology of the frenulum (a brush of Sphinginae (eight species, 25.8%) and Smerinthinae bristles