TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rabl, Dominik
A1  - Alonso-Rodríguez, Aura M.
A1  - Brehm, Gunnar
A1  - Fiedler, Konrad
T1  - Trait variation in moths mirrors small-scaled ecological gradients in a tropical forest landscape
JF  - Insects
N2  - Along environmental gradients, communities are expected to be filtered from the regional species pool by physical constraints, resource availability, and biotic interactions. This should be reflected in species trait composition. Using data on species-rich moth assemblages sampled by light traps in a lowland rainforest landscape in Costa Rica, we show that moths in two unrelated clades (Erebidae-Arctiinae; Geometridae) are much smaller-sized in oil palm plantations than in nearby old-growth forest, with intermediate values at disturbed forest sites. In old-growth forest, Arctiinae predominantly show aposematic coloration as a means of anti-predator defense, whereas this trait is much reduced in the prevalence in plantations. Similarly, participation in Müllerian mimicry rings with Hymenoptera and Lycidae beetles, respectively, is rare in plantations. Across three topographic types of old-growth forests, community-weighted means of moth traits showed little variation, but in creek forest, both types of mimicry were surprisingly rare. Our results emphasize that despite their mobility, moth assemblages are strongly shaped by local environmental conditions through the interplay of bottom–up and top–down processes. Assemblages in oil palm plantations are highly degraded not only in their biodiversity, but also in terms of trait expression.
KW  - Costa Rica
KW  - body size
KW  - mimicry rings
KW  - aposematism
KW  - oil palm plantations
KW  - lowland rainforest
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-213016
SN  - 2075-4450
VL  - 11
IS  - 9
ER  -