Moths: Winged Marvels of the Rainforest Nights
December 22, 2006
During daylight, butterflies reign over the rainforest, but at night other winged marvels appear to claim the throne: Moths. ACA’s Wayqechas and Los Amigos Research Stations are the two most important sampling stations for the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), which is currently conducting studies of selected moth families in the Andes-Amazon region of southeastern Peru.
BRIT has engaged in long-term investigation of the diversity, ecology, and distribution of the Sphingidae (hawkmoths), Arctiidae (tiger moths), and the Saturniidae (emperor moths); species that easily found among the tropical vegetation of the ACA field sites. In 12 months of sampling at one light trap site at the Los Amigos Biological Station, Pedro Centeno, BRIT Moth Project 2005, sampled nearly 100 hawkmoth species, more than 500 tiger moth species, and dozens of species of emperor moths, such as the Automeris liberia depicted in this image.
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