Diversity of Lepidoptera recorded in a forest nursery of Nordeste county on São Miguel Island (Azores)

The diversity of moth species (Insecta, Lepidoptera) recorded in the forest nursery of Nordeste county on São Miguel island (Azores) is given. Adults were sampled between March and December 2019 using three methods: (i) light trap to caught Noctuidae species, (ii) open-sided delta trap baited with a synthetic female sex pheromone lure to attract Epiphyas postvittana males and (iii) entomological net to identify microlepidopteran moths. A total of 10160 adults belonging to 33 lepidopteran species were recorded and listed by families, including: Argyresthiidae 1 (3%), Crambidae 4 (12%), Erebidae 1 (3%), Geometridae 5 (15%), Noctuidae 18 (55%), Sphingidae 1 (3%), Tineidae 1 (3%), and Tortricidae 2 (6%). The families Noctuidae, Geometridae and Crambidae were the most diverse. Those with the highest abundance of adults was the Noctuidae family followed by the Crambidae, Trotricidae and Tineidae. The number of caught adults was consistently higher during spring and summer, decreasing sharply in late fall. For 14 species caught in the light trap the adult sex ratio was favorable to females, except for Xestia c-nigrum which was favorable to males. An analysis of the colonization status, feeding and primary hosts of these endemic, native or exotic moth species suggests that plants reared in forest nurseries, being attacked by such insects, facilitates our understanding of the diversity of lepidopterans that establish in Laurel Forest environments and to what extent there is a need to monitor and control them mainly with biological control agents.

Regional Founds, through Official Forestry Services from Regional Government of the Azores, within the research project MoCIL “Monitorização e Controlo Integrado de Lepidópteros em Viveiros Florestais (Nordeste e Furnas) na ilha de São Miguel - Açores” FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the project UIDP/05292/2020 and UIDB/05292/2020. AZORESBIOPORTAL–PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145-FEDER-000072) (2019-2022).

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion