An inventory study of the Lepidoptera of Hutan Lipur Lata Belatan and Hutan Simpan Gunung Tebu Forest, Terengganu Malaysia with a comparison of lepidopteran diversity at these two sites.

At 1039 metres, Gunung Tebu is one of the highest hills in NE Peninsular Malaysia and the highest in Terengganu, surrounded by selectively logged community forest. Human disturbance and infrastructure development have been associated with a reduction in floral and faunal diversity. Sampling of butterflies and moths was carried out in July 2012 in two principal regions; comprising low altitude disturbed recreational forest and the higher-altitude, relatively undisturbed, forest of Gunung Tebu itself. A total of 113 individuals belonging to 101 species in 20 lepidopteran families were collected. The family Geometridae was the richest in terms of species (25%), followed by Erebidae (20%), and several families were each represented by only a single species. The Simpson Diversity Index (D) of species diversity was 1.963 x 10-3 and Fisher's alpha (α) index was 458.1 overall indicating very high diversity in Lepidoptera in the forest. For the two sites individually, D was 6.585 x 10-4 for Lata Belatan forest and 4.545 x 10-3 for Gunung Tebu forest. The Fisher's alpha, Shannon-Weiner Index and Species Evenness (E') for Lata Belatan forest were also higher than for Gunung Tebu forest. Presented here are the full results of this sampling, in tabular form, along with the outcomes of various diversity indices and a discussion of their implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]