Fauna of nocturnal moth species collected in a semi-natural grassland at Kanpu-zan in northern Japan

Abstract

Semi-natural grasslands, which house species-rich ecosystems, have rapidly declined since the twentieth century due to land-use practices, such as agricultural intensification and abandonment. Owing to their diversity and known habitat associations, nocturnal moths are considered as one of the most suitable organisms to be studied for assessing the dynamics of species composition as a result of changes in landscape management of semi-natural grasslands. The present study provides the foremost description of nocturnal moth fauna of the semi-natural grassland at Kanpu-zan, northern Japan. Moth population data from 1987 were compared to the data collected in 2018 to evaluate the impact of decline in grasslands on species-richness. During the field sampling in 2018, a total of 226 nocturnal moth species were detected, which was nearly two-thirds of the number of species recorded in 1987, i.e. 396 species. The values obtained in 2018 were found to be nearly constant for different sites. For both periods, it was evident that moth fauna in Kanpu-zan mainly consisted of species that relied on woody plants. Amongst the species which were only recorded in 1987, 107 species were generalists that fed on plants that are commonly distributed in Kanpu-zan. No moth species were recorded that depended upon endangered or extinct plant food sources. Thus, it is unlikely that the decline in the number of moth species in Kanpu-zan was due to the loss in plant food sources. Our results suggest that environmental factors other than food plants may have caused decline and changes in nocturnal moth fauna. More studies on various organism fauna are needed for understanding the conservation of semi-natural grassland, considering that the loss of semi-natural grasslands is one of the major threats to biodiversity.