- University of Toronto
Summary
Certain families of atympanate (deaf) moths are more abundant during the summer at times when bat activity is low. Atympanate moths were collected at ultraviolet lights throughout the summer at a site in southeastern Ontario. Seasonal frequency distributions for individual families showed different trends when compared with ambient bat activity levels. Most saturniids were collected between mid-May and mid-June, before the time when bats are most active (July and August). Lasiocampids were also collected outside the range of high bat activity, emerging in early May, late June, or late August. Population levels of the sphingids, on the other hand, were similar to bat activity levels. From these data, I suggest that some families of deaf moths face reduced selection pressure by bats through temporal isolation.
Methodology
During the summer of 1985 I collected all atympanate moths (Eggers 1919) (i .e., Saturniidae, Lasiocampidae, and Sphingidae) from two ultraviolet lights at the Queen's University Biology Station, near Chaffey's Lock, Leeds County, Ontario (44°34' N, 79°15' W). Both lights were located near a lake (Lake Opinicon); one was within a forested area, while the other was on the shore of a small bay surrounded by forest. The lights were inspected each evening between 23:00 and 00:30; all atympanate moths were removed and subsequently identified using criteria in Covell (1984), Ferguson (1971), Franclemont (1973), Hodges (197 I), and Holland (1968).