A checklist of the moths of Tasik Kenyir

Abstract

In Peninsular Malaysia, there were not much research conducted on the diversity and composition of moths. Thus, a study was conducted to investigate the abundance and diversity of the moths species at Kenyir Lake, situated in the Taman Negara Terengganu. Sampling was conducted continuously for three night starting from 10 March 2011 to 12 March 2011 with a light trap that was set up before dusk until midnight. A total of 179 individuals from 34 species, and 33 genus were identified from 13 families. Majority of the moth were from the family Lymantriidae (76%), followed by Arctiidae (4%), Geometridae (4%), Limacodidae (3%), Sphingidae (3%), Saturniidae (2%), Bombycidae (1%), Lasiocampidae (1%) and Nolidae (1%). Three families were recorded as the least abundant family and were represented by singletons during the study namely Drepanidae (0.6%), Notodontidae (0.6%) and Uraniidae (0.6%). In addition, results shown that the genus Nygmia (72.5%) was the dominant genus found at Kenyir. The Shannon and Fisher Alpha Diversity Index calculated were H' = 1.53 and a-diversity 12.44 respectively, with species richness (D) and species evenness (J) calculated were D = 2.54 and J = 0.43. For this study, the preliminary checklist of the moth species at Kenyir was established and an initial result of the moth diversity and composition obtained. As such, this study will be a baseline to initiate more studies conducted on moth diversity in Terengganu.