Eur. J. Entomol. 91 (2): 213-226, 1994
Diversity and variability of Lepidoptera populations in urban Brno, Czech Republic
- N/A
Lepidoptera populations were monitored during 29 years by a light-trap in urban Brno. Compared with other sites in the Czech Republic (Prague-Ruzynì, Èeské Budĕjovice, Černiš) urban Brno was extraordinarily rich in species, richer than the other Czech sites studied and richer than many British sites in an urban to natural gradient. Variability of the more common species at Brno was as high as that at the ruderal/deteriorated agricultural setting at Ceske Budejovice, and generally higher than that in the wet forest environment at Cernis and much higher than in the park-like/suburban/agricultural setting of Prague. Voltinism had no effect on variability from year to year. Most of the more common species in Brno clearly increased in abundance over the years, unlike those at the other sites. Much of the large diversity at Brno, however, was because of a large number of accidental species, vagrants from elsewhere. When considering only the more common species (>= 5 individuals per year), however, Brno is among the most species-poor sites. The common species at Brno were mostly tramp species that could take advantage of whatever food and habitat the city had to offer.
Because of strong correlations in abundance between species at one site with conspecifics at other sites over distances of 150-200 km, the abundances in these populations are apparently strongly affected by large-scale processes such as weather, overriding in part large differences between the habitats or by large-scale dispersal of individuals between sites. Significant correlations also existed between conspecifics in these sites in variability as well as in trends in time, with the curious exception of Cernis, the only reasonably natural habitat, suggesting that these parameters are strongly affected by local habitat characteristics.
Keywords: Urban entomology, Lepidoptera, diversity, stability, variability, light-trap
Accepted: December 20, 1993; Published: May 15, 1994 Show citation
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.