Diverse population trajectories among coexisting species of subarctic forest moths

Abstract

Records of 232 moth species spanning 26 years (total catch of ca. 230,000 specimens), obtained by continuous light‐trapping in Kevo, northernmost subarctic Finland, were used to examine the hypothesis that life‐history traits and taxonomic position contribute to both relative abundance and temporal variability of Lepidoptera. Species with detritophagous or moss‐feeding larvae, species hibernating in the larval stage, and species pupating during the first half of the growing season were over‐represented among 42 species classified as abundant during the entire sampling period. The coefficients of variation in annual catches of species hibernating as eggs averaged 1.7 times higher than those of species hibernating as larvae or pupae. Time‐series analysis demonstrated that periodicity in fluctuations of annual catches is generally independent of life‐history traits and taxonomic affinities of the species. Moreover, closely related species with similar life‐history traits often show different population dynamics, undermining the phylogenetic constraints hypothesis. Species with the shortest (1 year) time lag in the action of negative feedback processes on population growth exhibit the largest magnitude of fluctuations. Our analyses revealed that only a few consistent patterns in the population dynamics of herbivorous moths can be deduced from life‐history characteristics of the species. Moreover, the diversity of population behaviour in one moth assemblage challenges any conventional wisdom suggesting predictable patterns. Our results raise several questions about perceptions and paradigms in insect population dynamics and stress the need for research on detritivorous insect population dynamics, as well as the need for more assemblage‐wide studies using common trapping methods to provide comparative data on related and unrelated species with different life‐history traits.