CHAPTER 3.

1 LOCAL SPECIES DIVERSITY

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specimens (and species) decreases with disturbance, while that of Macroglossinae increases. Generally, it must be expected that the ecological similarity of species, and therefore their habitat choice, is correlated with their phylogeny (Webb et al. 2002, Webb 2000), so effects of habitat parameters on higher taxon frequency are not surprising. Many Smerinthinae species (i.e., the tribus Smerinthini) have a reduced, non-functional proboscis which does not allow adult feeding (Lemaire & Minet 1998, Kitching & Cadiou 2000). This implies a capital breeding life-history where only larval resources are used for egg production and adult energy expenditure, which can have significant impacts on ecological characteristics of Lepidoptera species (Tammaru & Haukioja 1996). Presumably associated with this life history are a shorter adult life span and greater sexual dimorphism (see e.g. Janzen 1984). Macroglossinae, on the other hand, have a well developed proboscis (hence the name of the group, e.g. Miller 1997). Their income breeding life history implies that adult resources are used for reproduction and body maintenance, potentially resulting in longer adult life and associated features (Janzen 1984, see also Kaitala et al. 2002). For Sphinginae, which share similar life history traits as Macroglossinae, no changes of their generally low frequency were observed. Smerinthinae might be suspected to be less efficient dispersers due to their (presumed) shorter adult life-span or lower flight abilities (see also chapters 4.1 & 5.2) although no evidence for this was found within Borneo (Schulze 2000). Still, data indicate the trend that the partly capital breeding Smerinthinae are better adapted to stable primary habitats, while income breeding Macroglossinae thrive in disturbed sites, which probably were mostly ephemeral before the recent period of massive anthropogenic habitat conversion in the Indo-Australian tropics (Bowles et al. 1998, Sodhi et al. 2004). For further support of the idea that life history influences responses of taxa to habitat parameters, see box 3.1. However, this hypothesis is weakened by the Smerinthinae-tribus Ambulycini, which are adult feeders (see chapter 1.2) yet exhibit the same reactions to habitat disturbance as (confirmed non-feeding) Smerinthini (not shown). In Bornean local assemblages Ambulycini and Smerinthini contribute approximately equally to the total species and specimen numbers. More knowledge about the natural history of the Ambulycini is needed to understand the biodiversity reactions of this group, as will be further discussed in chapter 7. Faunal composition of Sphingid assemblages on Borneo is significantly influenced by habitat disturbance (see e.g. figure 3.5). This finding is in contrast to results from Schulze & Fiedler (2003b) who found no influence of disturbance on Sphingid -diversity despite similar analysis techniques (i.e. NESS-index, non-metric MDS). Two differences between Schulze & Fielder (2003b) and this study might be responsible for this difference: A large sample size might have made it possible to find community changes that were not visible at smaller sample sizes. Furthermore, the classification of habitat disturbance differed between the studies: While Schulze & Fiedler (2003b) dichotomously compared strictly primary habitat with habitats of any degree of disturbance, this study was (due to a large sample size) able to classify habitats by also differentiating between secondary, degenerated forests and heavily disturbed, open landscapes. Several studies on Lepidoptera diversity indicated that this stage of habitat conversion might create the greater change in communities than a primary forest to secondary forest conversion (e.g. Willott 1999, Willott et al. 2000, Schulze 2000, Beck et al. 2002).