Automated Visual Monitoring of Nocturnal Insects with Light-based Camera Traps

Automatic camera-assisted monitoring of insects for abundance estimations is crucial to understand and counteract ongoing insect decline. In this paper, we present two datasets of nocturnal insects, especially moths as a subset of Lepidoptera, photographed in Central Europe. One of the datasets, the EU-Moths dataset, was captured manually by citizen scientists and contains species annotations for 200 different species and bounding box annotations for those. We used this dataset to develop and evaluate a two-stage pipeline for insect detection and moth species classification in previous work. We further introduce a prototype for an automated visual monitoring system. This prototype produced the second dataset consisting of more than 27,000 images captured on 95 nights. For evaluation and bootstrapping purposes, we annotated a subset of the images with bounding boxes enframing nocturnal insects. Finally, we present first detection and classification baselines for these datasets and encourage other scientists to use this publicly available data.Comment: Presented at the FGVC workshop at the CVPR202

Alpha and beta diversity patterns of macro-moths reveal a breakpoint along a latitudinal gradient in Mongolia

Little is known about the diversity and distribution patterns of moths along latitudinal gradients. We studied macro-moths in Mongolia along an 860 km latitudinal climatic gradient to gain knowledge on community composition, alpha, beta, and gamma diversity as well as underlying factors, which can be used as baseline information for further studies related to climate change. We identified 236 species of moths of ten families. Our study shows that the diversity of moths increased with the latitude, i.e., low species richness in the south and higher richness in the north. Moth community composition changed along the gradient, and we revealed a breakpoint of beta diversity that divided grassland and desert communities. In the desert, beta diversity was driven by species loss (i.e., nestedness), and few tolerant species existed with high abundance. In contrast, in the grassland, beta diversity was driven by species replacement with more unique species, (i.e., species which occurred only in one site). We found the lowest species diversity in the transitional zones dominated by few generalist species such as Agrotis ripae and Anarta trifolii. Low precipitation and an increasing number of grazing goats are drivers of species loss. We suggest different conservation strategies regarding the contrasting patterns of beta diversity in desert and grassland

Faunal composition of geometrid moths changes with altitude in an Andean montane rain forest.

Abstract Aim The objective of this study was to describe and interpret the changes in faunal composition in the moth family Geometridae (Lepidoptera) along a small-scale elevational gradient in a tropical montane rain forest. This gradient was compared with a large-scale latitudinal gradient in Europe. Location Investigations were carried out in the province Zamora-Chinchipe in southern Ecuador along a gradient ranging from 1040 to 2677 m above sea level at twenty-two sites. Methods Moths were sampled with light-traps in three field periods in 1999 and 2000 and subsequently sorted and determined to species or morphospecies. Results We analysed 13,938 specimens representing 1010 species of geometrid moths. The proportional contribution of subtaxa to the local geometrid fauna changes along the elevational gradient at all systematic levels considered. While proportions of species of the subfamilies Ennominae, Sterrhinae and Geometrinae significantly decrease, the proportion of Larentiinae increases with increasing altitude. Changes also occur within the subfamilies Ennominae and Larentiinae. The host-plant specialist ennomine tribes Cassymini, Macariini and Palyadini completely vanish, and the proportion of the tribe Boarmiini decreases at high altitudes. In contrast, the remaining tribes (mostly comprising polyphagous species) either do not show proportional changes (Azelinini, Nacophorini, Nephodiini, Ourapterygini) or even increase (Caberini, ÔCratoptera groupÕ). Within Larentiinae, the species proportion of the genus Eois decreases, whereas concomitantly the proportion of Eupithecia increases. There is a remarkable similarity between the altitudinal patterns in Ecuador and those found along the latitudinal gradient in Europe. Main conclusions Species of the subfamily Larentiinae seem to be particularly welladapted to harsh environmental conditions, towards both high altitudes and latitudes. They might disproportionately profit from lower predation at higher altitudes. Many changes in the faunal composition can be explained by expected host-plant requirements of the species involved. Our results show that diversity estimates based on taxon ratios which are assumed to be constant must be regarded with caution because such ratios can change rapidly along environmental gradients. Keywords Geometridae, Larentiinae, Ennominae, elevational gradient, latitudinal gradient, taxon ratios, host-plant specialists, indicator taxa, biodiversity indicators. Resumen Objetivo La meta de este estudio era describir e interpretar los cambios y la composició n faunística en la familia de mariposas Geometridae (Lepidoptera) a lo largo de un gradiente altitudinal de escala pequeñ a en un bosque de montañ a en los tró picos. Este gradiente fue comparado con un gradiente latitudinal de escala grande en Europa

Molecular phylogeny of Sterrhinae moths (Lepidoptera Geometridae) : towards a global classification

A multigene phylogenetic study was carried out to test current, mostly morphology-based hypotheses on Sterrhinae phylogeny with additional material included from further geographical areas and morphologically different lineages. A maximum likelihood analysis (11 molecular markers and 7665 bp) was conducted on 76 species and 41 genera using iq-tree software. The resulting phylogenetic hypothesis is well resolved and branches have high support values. Results generally agree with earlier hypotheses at tribal levels and support the hypothesis that Sterrhinae comprises two major lineages. Based on the molecular phylogeny and extensive morphological examination, nine tribes are considered valid and the following taxonomic changes are introduced to recognize monophyletic groups: Mecoceratini Guenee, 1858 (= Ametridini Prout, 1910) is transferred from Desmobathrinae to Sterrhinae, and it is considered valid at tribal level new classification; Haemaleini Sihvonen & Brehm is described as a new tribe and deemed sister to Scopulini + Lissoblemmini; Lissoblemmini Sihvonen & Staude is described as a new tribe and sister to Scopulini; Lythriini Herbulot, 1962 is now a junior synonym of Rhodometrini Agenjo, 1952 syn.n.; and Rhodostrophiini Prout, 1935 is now a junior synonym of Cyllopodini Kirby, 1892 syn.n. In addition, 48 taxa are transferred from other geometrid subfamilies to Sterrhinae, or within Sterrhinae from one tribe to another, or they are classified into a tribe for the first time, or a new genus classification is proposed. The results demonstrate the limited explanatory power of earlier classifications, particularly at the tribal level. This is probably a result of earlier classifications being based on superficial characters and biased towards the European and North American fauna. The species richness and distribution of Sterrhinae and its constituent tribes are reviewed, showing that the globally distributed Sterrhinae are most diverse in the Neotropics (31% of global fauna). They are species-rich in the Palaearctic (22%), Afrotropics (19%) and Indo-Malay (16%) regions, whereas they are almost absent in Oceania (1%). In terms of the described fauna, the most species-rich tribes are Scopulini (928 species), Sterrhini (876 species) and Cosymbiini (553 species), all of which have a cosmopolitan distribution. Mecoceratiini and Haemaleini are almost entirely Neotropical. Timandrini and Lissoblemmini, by contrast, are absent in the Neotropics. We present a revised classification of the global Sterrhinae fauna, which includes about 3000 putatively valid species, classified into nine tribes and 97 genera. Four genera are of uncertain position within Sterrhinae. Our results highlight the compelling need to include more genera from a global perspective in molecular phylogenetic studies, in order to create a stable global classification for this subfamily. This published work has been registered on ZooBank, :pub:A66F5DDD-06D6-4908-893E-E8B124BB99B1.Peer reviewe

A morphological appraisal of the new subfamily Epidesmiinae (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) with an overview of all geometrid subfamilies

Our study revises Epidesmiinae, the first new Geometridae subfamily that has been described in 127 years. We studied the morphological characters of representatives from all genera currently classified into Epidesmiinae, and compared those with all other geometrid subfamilies. Epidesmiinae were found to have an Australasian distribution, with one species occurring in the Indo-Malayan realm. They compose a lineage diagnosable by a combination of the following morphological characters: male antennae unipectinate; labial palps elongated (particularly the second segment), vom Raths’s organ with an elliptical invagination; forewing with two areoles; hindwing with one anal vein; gnathos arms fused, granulate or dentate apically; female genitalia with two signa, one stellate, another an elongated and spinose plate. We also present a summary of diagnostic characters of all geometrid subfamilies, which confirm the lack of single unique morphological characters. The limited information on the biology and ecology of Epidesmiinae species are summarized, indicating that some species fly during the day, most adult records are from the Southern Hemisphere summer months and larvae are found on Myrtaceae. We transfer Arcina Walker, 1863 from Oenochrominae s.l. to Epidesmiinae. Epidesmiinae includes 102 species that are now classified into nine genera: Abraxaphantes, Adeixis, Arcina, Dichromodes, Ecphyas, Epidesmia, Phrataria, Phrixocomes and Systatica.Peer reviewe

Assessing the efficiency of UV LEDs as light sources for sampling the diversity of macro-moths (Lepidoptera)

n/

An online taxonomic facility of Geometridae (Lepidoptera), with an overview of global species richness and systematics

We present a new, online, open access portal to the geometrid moths of the world (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). The portal provides access to the global database including data on classification, valid genera and species, synonyms and type localities, and to an online list of valid names. The value of this online facility, inter alia, is demonstrated by using the underlying data to update our understanding of the global and regional species richness of the family. We also review, clarify and list the family-group names (family, subfamily, tribe) of the Geometridae to provide users with a better understanding of the higher category framework when they access the database. Currently, the Geometridae database includes 34,897 available species-group names. Of these, 7,891 are considered synonyms (23% of available names), giving a total of 27,006 valid species-group names, which in turn comprise 23,872 species names and 3,134 subspecies names. The world fauna is classified into 2,019 genera, 92 tribes and 9 subfamilies. Our paper also includes an annotated list of all 202 subfamily, tribe and subtribe names in systematic order. One hundred family-group names (49.5%) are considered synonyms. Although most geometrid species were described in the 19th and 20th centuries, the average number of new species descriptions from 2000–2022 has been fairly constant at around 80 per year, implying there is still much more hidden geometrid diversity yet to be discovered.Peer reviewe