Moth Diversity at Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park, West Java

A study on moth fauna with focus on macro-moths was conducted at Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park from January to December 2007. The aims of the study were to acquire information of macro-moth diversity and to access the composition of the species at this area. Another objective of the research was to explore undescribed species of moths that inhabit this park. The result showed that a year collecting time with four sampling sites recorded only about 86% of estimated value in this park (846 of 983 species). Index diversity based on Fisher’s α is high. In addition, the number of families recorded from this park is also high, 29 families, or about half of the moth families that occur in Indo-Malayan region. Citiis site was the highest among other sites in term of the diversity index, while Gunung Botol is the lowest. These two sites have a few species in common. In general, Geometridae, Noctuidae, and Pyralidae dominate across all sites. The other significant finding of the research is that Dudgeonidae that has never been recorded from Indonesia was found at Citiis site

The Impact of Human Activities to Dynamic of Insect Communities: a Case Study in Gunung Salak, West Java

Huge areas of diverse tropical forest are lost or degraded every year with dramatic consequences for biodiversity. Human activities such as deforestation, fragmentation, over-exploitation, and monoculture practices are the main drivers of tropical forest biodiversity loss. Investigating of these threats with focusses on changes in species richness or species diversity will be able to minimize any impact of human activities at the early stage in a certain region. Therefore, to know the impact of human activities to dynamic of insect communities in Gunung Salak, West Java, we measured moth diversity and their structure within communities by comparing the index diversity, species richness and species composition across five different habitat types. The results showed that the habitat changes due to human activities had changed not only to the moth diversity but also to their structure within communities. The number of moth species decreased significantly as well as the number of lower taxa (family) in the disturbed forest (secondary forest, Agathis forest, and transition area) within ranges: 20-50 and 10-20%. The composition of the two main families, Geometridae and Noctuidae also showed a major change, family Geometridae decreased within ranges 10-50% in the disturbed area but Noctuidae increased up to 50% in those areas. Indeed, habitat lost due to human activities such as illegal logging, change of land use and land clearing is the main threats to decrease on macro-moth diversity and change their structures within communities

RAPID ASSESSMENT ON MACRO-MOTH DIVERSITY AT GUNUNG TAMBORA NATIONAL PARK, WEST NUSA TENGGARA

Rapid assessment on moth fauna with focus on macro-moths was conducted at Gunung Tambora National Park from 16 to 26 April 2015. The aims of the study were to acquire information on macro-moth diversity and to access the composition of the species at this area. The result showed that a short collecting time within two sampling sites recorded only about 77.8% of estimated value in this park (242 of 311 species). Index diversity based on Fisher’s α is low (97.21). In addition, the number of families recorded from this park is also low, only 17 families, or about one third of the moth families that occur in Indo-Malayan region. Camp II site was higher than the base camp Oi Marai sites in term of the diversity index. These two sites have a few species in common as indicated by Jaccard coefficient that was low (13.8%). In general, Noctuidae (26%), Pyralidae (20%), and Geometridae (19%) dominate across all sites. Noctuidae, Geometridae, Lymantriidae were higher in Camp II than those found in Oi Marai. On the other hand,Pyralidae was higher in Oi Marai than those found in Base Camp II.Keywords: Fisher’s α, index diversity, similarity

Molecular Phylogeny of Agrioglypta Meyrick and Talanga Moore (Lepidoptera: Crambidae; Spilomelinae) Inferred from Nuclear EF-1a Gene

The phylogeny of the two closely- related genera, Agrioglypta Meyrick and Talanga Moore, was inferred from nucleotide sequence variation across a 973-bp region in the nuclear elongation factor-1 (EF-1) gene. Seven species representing the two genera and two outgroup species (Feltia jaculifera Guene and Metallarcha aureodiscalis Meyrick) were analyzed. The results showed the averages of the p-distances in the comparisons between species within genus and between species belonging to other different genera were 3.5% and 4.9%, respectively. EF-1 gene had almost reached saturation at the level of the divergence of these two genera. The phylogenetic analysis using MP and NJ methods showed that each genus was found to be a monophyletic group and the species relationships within each genus were almost consistent as well. A. eurytusalis is the basal species in the genus Agrioglypta. In the genus Talanga, T. sabacusalis lied in the basal node and T. tolumnialis was found to be sister group of T. sexpunctalis

A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON MACRO-MOTH DIVERSITY AT THE BASE OF FOJA MOUNTAIN NATURE RESERVE: KWERBA VILLAGE, MEMBRAMO RAYA, PAPUA

  Kajian awal ngengat berukuran besar telah dilakukan di desa Kwerba, Kaki Pegunungan Foja, Membramo Raya tanggal 1 sd. 29 November 2008 (10 malam). Tujuan dari kajian ini adalah untuk mengumpulkan informasi tentang keragaman ngengat dan juga untuk mengetahui komposisi jenis ngengat di kawasan ini. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa dalam waktu yang singkat hanya diperoleh sekitar 83% dari total yang ada atau sekitar 178 dari total perkiraan 214 jenis. Indeks diversitas Fisher’s ? relatif rendah yaitu 83,17. Demikian juga jumlah famili yang ditemukan di kawasan ini juga rendah hanya 19 famili atau sekitar 1/3 dari total famili yang ada di Indo-Malaya. Secara umum, Pyralidae, Geometridae, dan Noctuidae mendominasi kawasan tersebut. Rendahnya diversitas di kawasan ini berhubungan dengan jenis tanaman yang ada. Pembukaan lahan dan pembalakan liar telah menyebabkan turunnya jumlah jenis pohon tetapi di sisi yang lain kerapatan tumbuhan muda dan jumlah tumbuhhan merambat meningkat. Hanya terdapat sekitar 300 species tumbuhan dikawasan ini. Tentu saja kalau menuju ketinggian yang lebih tinggi dari kawasan kaki gunung ini kemungkinan jenisnya tumbuhan akan lebih banyak karena lebih jauh dari jangkauan penduduk. Sehingga diversitas ngengat di kawasan ini belum dapat digunakan untuk menyimpulkan keragaman ngengat di Pegunungan Foja. Kajian yang lebih intensif yang meliputi seluruh lokasi pegunungan dari dataran rendah sampai puncak masih perlu dilakukan.

Moth Diversity at Sebangau Peat Swamp and Busang River Secondary Rain Forest, Central Kalimantan

A study on the diversity of moths was conducted from July to Augustus 2004 at the peat swamp forest Setya Alam research station, Sebangau, Central Kalimantan. The result showed that diversity of moths at this area was lower (100 species of 12 families; H = 6.643, E = 0.794) than that in secondary rain forest Busang River (278 species of 19 families; H = 8.139, E = 0.831). The result also showed that the similarity index (Cj) of the two areas was very low (0.05). Geometridae, Noctuidae, and Pyralidae were dominant in both areas. There might be more species that have not been found during eight night sampling as indicated by the species numbers in both areas has not reach a plateau

PHYLOGENY OF Glyphodes Guenee (Lepidoptera: Crambidae: Spilomelinae) BASED ON NUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCE VARIATION IN A MITOCHONDRIAL CO I GENE: CONGRUENCE WITH MORPHOLOGICAL DATA

The phylogeny of Glyphodes Cuenee (14 species) and four outgroup species (Feltia jaculifera, Metallarcha aureodiscalis, Talanga sexpunctalis and Agrioghrypta eurytusalis) was inferred fromnucleotide sequence variation across a 686-bp region in the CO I gene. Over the entire 686-bp region, 19.9% sites were informative (3.35% in the 1st-, 0.29% in the 2nd - and 16.32% in 3rd - codon position). The results also showed that the base composition of this region was high A+T biased (C= 0.258) and the averages ofestimated sequence divergence in the comparisons between species within and between groups were 7.1% and 9.0%, respectively. In general, the phylogeny based on CO I gene by including all substitutions or any partial data set used in this study was not only able to recover almost the three monophyletic groups withinGlyphodes as previously recovered by morphological phylogeny but also showed more clearly the relationships among them: Glyphodes group 2 was branched off first then followed by group 3 and 1.Key words: CO I, Glyphodes, morphology, phylogen

Phylogenetic Relationships Within Arctornis (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) Based on COI Gene Sequences

Genus Arctornis is one of Tussock moths which are most diverse in tropics, particularly in Sundaland.Several species associate with cultivated plants and have potential to become pests.  The systematic of this genus is still in dispute, especially on the monophyly and the relationship within this genus due to the fact that it is very large genus (137 described species). To clarify the monophyly of the genus Arctornis, and to reveal the phylogenetic relationship among the Indonesian species, we analyzed ten species of Indonesian Arctonis involving seven other species distributed around the world based on a 600 bp region in the COI gene. The results showed that the monophyly of Arctornis was supported by a high bayesian partition test at Maximum likelihood tree building method. The relationship among groups was supported by moderate to high bayesian partition values. Indeed, COI gene was very useful to characterize Arctornis species, especially to distinguish member of Indonesian species. Nevertheless, this should be taken with precaution because more species and more conserved genes should be involved in the future analysis to test the validity of the proposed phylogeny

SPECIES STATUS OF A RICE YELLOW STEM BORER, SCIRPOPHAGA INCERTULAS (LEPIDOPTERA: PYRALIDAE) BASED ON CO I GENE SEQUENCES

Study on species status of a rice yellow stem borer, Scirpophaga incertulas(Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) was conducted. The objectives of the study were to explorethe genetic variation among populations of S. incertulas in Java and to clarify itsspecies status based on CO I gene sequences. The results showed that from the entire680-bp region of sequences from10 population in Java, 99 % were constant. The averageof estimated sequence divergences in the comparisons among populations withinS.incertulas was very low about 0.01%. The base composition was slightly A+T biased(C:0.15) with G+C contents was 37.09%. The result of phylogenetic analysis showedthat S.incertulas is a single species with S.innotata as its sister group. The differenceson the body-size, black spot at female’s forewing, forewing length within S.incertulasare solely natural variation

Molecular Phylogeny of Indonesian Armyworm Mythimna Guenée (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Hadeninae) Based on CO I Gene Sequences

Armyworm Mythimna Guenée is one of the most important pests on graminaceous crops and pastures in South East Asia (i.e. M. separata Walker is well known to cause serious damages on rice in Indonesia). Like of most other genera of moths, the systematic of this genus is still in dispute, especially on the taxonomy and classification within this genus due to their morphological characters that are very difficult to distinguish from one to others. Molecular approaches such as using CO I gene sequence to differentiate among species has been recommended since this gene has ability to reveal the character identity at the specific level.  In order to populate the genetic characters of Indonesian Mythimna, to clarify the clasification within the genus Mythimna and to reveal the phylogenetic relationship among them, we analyzed 14 species of Mythimna and two species outgroups (Spodoptera litura dan S. exigua) based on nucleotide sequence variation across a 649 bp region in the CO I gene.  Over entire 649 bp region 72% of the nucleotide positions were constant, 10.6% were uninformtive (i.e. any variants were found in a single sequence) and 16.9% were parsimony informative. The informative site constituted in the 3rd codon position was the highest, whereas in 2nd codon position was the lowest. The results also showed that the base composition of this region was low A + T biased. The results showed that the monophyly of Mytimna was supported by 95% bootstrap test at any tree building methods. The three subgenera based on morphology were recovered but M. (Mythimna) shown to be a paraphyletic group in term of M. (Hyphilare), and M. (Pseudalteia); M. (Mythimna) was branched off first then followed by M. (Pseudaletia) and M. (Hyphilare).  However, all internal nodes were least support except for the monophyly of subgenus M. (Hyphilare). It indicates that the relationships among internal nodes proposed here were least valid due to the number of species included in the analysis which may not be enough to represent the real number of species in the nature. More investigation was needed by including more species and other genes