Moth diversity of a tropical forest in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

A standard Rothamsted light trap was operated for slightly over 12 months from the end of September 1979 to October 1980 at Genting Sempah, Pahang in Malaysia. All specimens of macrolepidoptera families together with the Pyralidae were identified, counted and recorded. The numbers of species caught were compared with those obtained by a different method at a nearby site for over 10 years. Diversity, biomass and seasonality of the catch were compared with identically sampled populations in Great Britain and New Zealand. The Genting Sempah trap had very high diversity and biomass compared with the temperate samples and exhibited much less seasonality. The Pyralidae and other families (excluding Noctuidae and Geometridae) formed a much higher component of diversity in Genting than in Britain. The log-normal distribution fits the data better than the log-series. So the inter-quartile slope, Q, is the correct parameter for interfaunal comparisons.