Exploración preliminar de polillas Sphingidae y Saturniidae en dos áreas de Nicaragua con distintas configuraciones vegetales

Jaime Navarrete-Rivas; Joxual J. Araque Pérez; Wener Armando Ochoa Orozco

doi:10.48204/j.scientia.v36n2.a9100

Submitted December 27, 2025

Published 2026-07-15

Artículos

Vol. 36 No. 2 (2026): Scientia

A preliminary survey of Sphingidae and Saturniidae in two Nicaraguan regions with contrasting vegetation structures

Jaime Navarrete-Rivas ⁺⁻
Joxual J. Araque Pérez⁺⁻
Wener Armando Ochoa Orozco ⁺⁻

DOI https://doi.org/10.48204/j.scientia.v36n2.a9100

PDF (Español (España))

References

DOI: 10.48204/j.scientia.v36n2.a9100

Published: 2026-07-15

How to Cite

Navarrete-Rivas , J., Araque Pérez, J. J., & Ochoa Orozco , W. A. (2026). A preliminary survey of Sphingidae and Saturniidae in two Nicaraguan regions with contrasting vegetation structures. Scientia, 36(2), 56–81. https://doi.org/10.48204/j.scientia.v36n2.a9100

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The families Sphingidae and Saturniidae participate in nocturnal pollination and trophic energy transfer in tropical ecosystems, yet knowledge gaps persist in Nicaragua regarding their response to habitat fragmentation. Communities of both families were evaluated in two landscapes of northern Nicaragua: Finca Cerro Jesús (Jalapa, Nueva Segovia), with greater forest continuity, and Finca Rosita (El Zacatón, Estelí), embedded in a fragmented agroproductive matrix. Light traps were used during four nights (23–26 May 2025). Land cover was characterized using Random Forest classification of Sentinel-2 L2A imagery (overall Kappa = 0.91). A total of 228 individuals belonging to 71 species were recorded: 156 individuals and 54 species in Nueva Segovia versus 72 and 50 in Estelí. Individual-based rarefaction standardized to N = 72 revealed higher richness in Estelí (50 species) than in Nueva Segovia (39). The Sørensen similarity index was 0.60, with 33 shared species, 21 exclusive to Nueva Segovia and 17 to Estelí. Rank–abundance curves showed greater dominance by few species in the fragmented landscape, whereas the site with greater tree cover displayed more balanced abundances. Assemblages in fragmented landscapes were dominated by disturbance-tolerant generalist species, whereas those in more continuous forest harbored forest specialists. These results support the use of both families as landscape-level bioindicators, underscoring the need to conserve forest patches in contexts of agricultural expansion and forest cover loss.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Araque, J. J., y Navarrete-Rivas, J. (2025). Saturniidae and Sphingidae moths in the transitional premontane forests of Quizaltepe, San Lorenzo, Boaco, Nicaragua. Revista Nicaragüense de Entomología, 367, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14613299
Araque Pérez, J. (2023). Contribución para el conocimiento en la distribución de fauna terrestre de Nicaragua. Revista Nicaragüense de Biodiversidad, 93, 1-45.
Bio-Nica. (2024). Familias del orden Lepidóptero de Nicaragua. http://www.bio-nica.info/Ento/Lepido/lepidoptera.htm
Cuautle, M., Castillo-Guevara, C., Juárez-Juárez, B., y Lara, C. (2025). Effects of anthropogenic disturbance and seasonality on alpha diversity of ant–plant interaction networks in Mexican temperate forests. Community Ecology, 26, 143–162. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42974-024-00222-5
Chacón, I., y Montero, J. (2007). Butterflies and moths of Costa Rica (Order Lepidoptera). Santo Domingo de Heredia: Editorial INBio
.
Chen, H., y Boutros, P. C. (2011). VennDiagram: A package for the generation of highly customizable Venn and Euler diagrams in R. BMC Bioinformatics, 12, 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2105-12-35
Cruz Flores, D. D., y Barro Cañamero, A. (2015). Diversidad de los ensambles de esfíngidos (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) de un bosque siempreverde mesófilo, Sierra del Rosario, Cuba. Cuban Journal of Biological Sciences / Revista Cubana de Ciencias Biológicas, 4(1).
Gao, X., Chi, H., Huang, J., Han, Y., Li, Y., y Ling, F. (2024). Comparison of cloud-mask algorithms and machine-learning methods using Sentinel-2 imagery for mapping paddy rice in Jianghan Plain. Remote Sensing, 16(7), 1305. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16071305
GRASS Development Team. (2024). Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS GIS) Software, Version 8.4. Open-Source Geospatial Foundation. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5176030
Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censo (INEC), (2001). III CENSO NACIONAL AGROPECUARIO. CENAGRO https://www.inide.gob.ni/Estadisticas/cenagro3
Karasiak, N. (2016). Dzetsaka QGIS Classification Plugin. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2552284
Karger, D. N., Abrahamczyk, S., y Kessler, M. (2013). Abundance and species richness of hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) in the fragmented landscape of Santa Cruz (Bolivia). Ecología en Bolivia, 48(1), 46–51. https://www.scielo.org.bo/pdf/reb/v48n1/v48n1_a05.pdf
Koleff, P., Gaston, K. J., y Lennon, J. J. (2003). Measuring beta diversity for presence–absence data. Journal of Animal Ecology, 72(3), 367–382. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2656.2003.00710.x
Lara-Pérez, L. A., Campos-Domínguez, J., Díaz-Fleischer, F., Adame-García, J., y Andrade-Torres, A. (2017). Species richness and abundance of Saturniidae (Lepidoptera) in a tropical semi-deciduous forest of Veracruz, Mexico and the influence of climatic variables. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad, 88(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmb.2016.10.020
Li, R., Gao, X., Shi, F., & Zhang, H. (2023). Scale effect of land cover classification from multi-resolution satellite remote sensing data. Sensors, 23(13), 6136. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23136136
Ministerio del Ambiente y de los Recursos Naturales (MARENA). (2022). Plan de manejo de la Reserva Natural Tisey–La Estanzuela (PDF). Gobierno de Nicaragua.
Maes, J. M. (2007). Identificación y clasificación de insectos en la Reserva Natural Datanlí–El Diablo, Nicaragua. Ministerio del Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales (MARENA).
Maes, J. M., Schmit, P., Laguerre, M., y Conlan, C. (2001). Saturniidae / Sphingidae de Nicaragua. Revista Nicaragüense de Entomología, 55/58, 1–4. CD ROM.
McFarland, N. (1966). A moth sheet for attracting and retaining live specimen without the use of a trap or tent-enclosure. Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera, 5(1), 29–36.
Oksanen, J., Simpson, G. L., Blanchet, F. G., Kindt, R., Legendre, P., Minchin, P. R., O’Hara, R. B., Solymos, P., Stevens, M. H. H., Szoecs, E., Wagner, H., Barbour, M., Bedward, M., Bolker, B., Borcard, D., Borman, T., Carvalho, G., Chirico, M., De Cáceres, M., Weedon, J. (2025). vegan: Community Ecology Package (Version 2.8-0) [R package]. https://vegandevs.github.io/vegan/
Peralta, J. M. (2025). Assessing the accuracy of Random Forest in mapping urban green cover in Baguio City using Sentinel-2 imagery and spectral indices. Journal of Information Systems Engineering and Management, 10(30s), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.52783/jisem.v10i30s.4859
R-Core Team. (2025). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.r-project.org/
Rabl, D., Alonso-Rodríguez, A. M., Brehm, G., y Fiedler, K. (2020). Trait variation in moths mirrors small-scaled ecological gradients in a tropical forest landscape. Insects, 11(9), 612. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11090612
Rodríguez-Puerta, F., Lucas, M., y McNally, S. (2024). Five-year evaluation of Sentinel-2 cloud-free mosaic generation under varied cloud cover conditions in Hawai’i. Remote Sensing, 16(24), 4791. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16244791
Salas E, J. (1993). Árboles de Nicaragua. Instituto Nicaragüense de Recursos Naturales y del Ambiente, IRENA.
Saldivar, I. (2025). Historia natural del bosque tropical seco de Nicaragua. Revista Nicaragüense de Biodiversidad, 116, 1–217. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15046809
Siles G., P; Talavera A., P; Andino R, F; Alaniz, L; Ortiz G, W. (2017). Composición florística, estructura y biomasa de los bosques de pino-encino en la reserva Santa Rosa, Tisey, Estelí, Nicaragua. Revista de Biología Tropical 65(2): 763-775.
Summerville, K. S., Conoan, C. J., & Steichen, R. M. (2006). Species traits as predictors of Lepidopteran composition in restored and remnant tallgrass prairies. Ecological Applications, 16(3), 891–900.
Tórrez, M., Arana, S. y Maes, J. M. (2007). Especies de las familias Saturniidae, Sphingidae, Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae (Lepidoptera), Scarabaeidae (Coleoptera) y su potencial uso como indicadores de perturbación en la Reserva Biológica Indio Maíz. Revista Nicaragüense de Entomología, 67, 1–36.
Venter, Z. S., Roos, R. E., Nowell, M. S., Rusch, G. M., Kvifte, G. M., y Sydenham, M. A. K. (2023). Comparing global Sentinel-2 land cover maps for regional species distribution modeling. Remote Sensing, 15(7), 1749.https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15071749

Keywords

PDF (Español (España))

Resumen visto - 1 veces
PDF (Español (España)) descargado - 0

Licencia

Este obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.

Content Top

[1] Araque, J. J., y Navarrete-Rivas, J. (2025). Saturniidae and Sphingidae moths in the transitional premontane forests of Quizaltepe, San Lorenzo, Boaco, Nicaragua. Revista Nicaragüense de Entomología, 367, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14613299

[2] Araque Pérez, J. (2023). Contribución para el conocimiento en la distribución de fauna terrestre de Nicaragua. Revista Nicaragüense de Biodiversidad, 93, 1-45.

[3] Bio-Nica. (2024). Familias del orden Lepidóptero de Nicaragua. http://www.bio-nica.info/Ento/Lepido/lepidoptera.htm

[4] Cuautle, M., Castillo-Guevara, C., Juárez-Juárez, B., y Lara, C. (2025). Effects of anthropogenic disturbance and seasonality on alpha diversity of ant–plant interaction networks in Mexican temperate forests. Community Ecology, 26, 143–162. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42974-024-00222-5

[5] Chacón, I., y Montero, J. (2007). Butterflies and moths of Costa Rica (Order Lepidoptera). Santo Domingo de Heredia: Editorial INBio

[6] .

[7] Chen, H., y Boutros, P. C. (2011). VennDiagram: A package for the generation of highly customizable Venn and Euler diagrams in R. BMC Bioinformatics, 12, 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2105-12-35

[8] Cruz Flores, D. D., y Barro Cañamero, A. (2015). Diversidad de los ensambles de esfíngidos (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) de un bosque siempreverde mesófilo, Sierra del Rosario, Cuba. Cuban Journal of Biological Sciences / Revista Cubana de Ciencias Biológicas, 4(1).

[9] Gao, X., Chi, H., Huang, J., Han, Y., Li, Y., y Ling, F. (2024). Comparison of cloud-mask algorithms and machine-learning methods using Sentinel-2 imagery for mapping paddy rice in Jianghan Plain. Remote Sensing, 16(7), 1305. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16071305

[10] GRASS Development Team. (2024). Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS GIS) Software, Version 8.4. Open-Source Geospatial Foundation. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5176030

[11] Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censo (INEC), (2001). III CENSO NACIONAL AGROPECUARIO. CENAGRO https://www.inide.gob.ni/Estadisticas/cenagro3

[12] Karasiak, N. (2016). Dzetsaka QGIS Classification Plugin. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2552284

[13] Karger, D. N., Abrahamczyk, S., y Kessler, M. (2013). Abundance and species richness of hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) in the fragmented landscape of Santa Cruz (Bolivia). Ecología en Bolivia, 48(1), 46–51. https://www.scielo.org.bo/pdf/reb/v48n1/v48n1_a05.pdf

[14] Koleff, P., Gaston, K. J., y Lennon, J. J. (2003). Measuring beta diversity for presence–absence data. Journal of Animal Ecology, 72(3), 367–382. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2656.2003.00710.x

[15] Lara-Pérez, L. A., Campos-Domínguez, J., Díaz-Fleischer, F., Adame-García, J., y Andrade-Torres, A. (2017). Species richness and abundance of Saturniidae (Lepidoptera) in a tropical semi-deciduous forest of Veracruz, Mexico and the influence of climatic variables. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad, 88(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmb.2016.10.020

[16] Li, R., Gao, X., Shi, F., & Zhang, H. (2023). Scale effect of land cover classification from multi-resolution satellite remote sensing data. Sensors, 23(13), 6136. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23136136

[17] Ministerio del Ambiente y de los Recursos Naturales (MARENA). (2022). Plan de manejo de la Reserva Natural Tisey–La Estanzuela (PDF). Gobierno de Nicaragua.

[18] Maes, J. M. (2007). Identificación y clasificación de insectos en la Reserva Natural Datanlí–El Diablo, Nicaragua. Ministerio del Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales (MARENA).

[19] Maes, J. M., Schmit, P., Laguerre, M., y Conlan, C. (2001). Saturniidae / Sphingidae de Nicaragua. Revista Nicaragüense de Entomología, 55/58, 1–4. CD ROM.

[20] McFarland, N. (1966). A moth sheet for attracting and retaining live specimen without the use of a trap or tent-enclosure. Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera, 5(1), 29–36.

[21] Oksanen, J., Simpson, G. L., Blanchet, F. G., Kindt, R., Legendre, P., Minchin, P. R., O’Hara, R. B., Solymos, P., Stevens, M. H. H., Szoecs, E., Wagner, H., Barbour, M., Bedward, M., Bolker, B., Borcard, D., Borman, T., Carvalho, G., Chirico, M., De Cáceres, M., Weedon, J. (2025). vegan: Community Ecology Package (Version 2.8-0) [R package]. https://vegandevs.github.io/vegan/

[22] Peralta, J. M. (2025). Assessing the accuracy of Random Forest in mapping urban green cover in Baguio City using Sentinel-2 imagery and spectral indices. Journal of Information Systems Engineering and Management, 10(30s), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.52783/jisem.v10i30s.4859

[23] R-Core Team. (2025). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.r-project.org/

[24] Rabl, D., Alonso-Rodríguez, A. M., Brehm, G., y Fiedler, K. (2020). Trait variation in moths mirrors small-scaled ecological gradients in a tropical forest landscape. Insects, 11(9), 612. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11090612

[25] Rodríguez-Puerta, F., Lucas, M., y McNally, S. (2024). Five-year evaluation of Sentinel-2 cloud-free mosaic generation under varied cloud cover conditions in Hawai’i. Remote Sensing, 16(24), 4791. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16244791

[26] Salas E, J. (1993). Árboles de Nicaragua. Instituto Nicaragüense de Recursos Naturales y del Ambiente, IRENA.

[27] Saldivar, I. (2025). Historia natural del bosque tropical seco de Nicaragua. Revista Nicaragüense de Biodiversidad, 116, 1–217. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15046809

[28] Siles G., P; Talavera A., P; Andino R, F; Alaniz, L; Ortiz G, W. (2017). Composición florística, estructura y biomasa de los bosques de pino-encino en la reserva Santa Rosa, Tisey, Estelí, Nicaragua. Revista de Biología Tropical 65(2): 763-775.

[29] Summerville, K. S., Conoan, C. J., & Steichen, R. M. (2006). Species traits as predictors of Lepidopteran composition in restored and remnant tallgrass prairies. Ecological Applications, 16(3), 891–900.

[30] Tórrez, M., Arana, S. y Maes, J. M. (2007). Especies de las familias Saturniidae, Sphingidae, Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae (Lepidoptera), Scarabaeidae (Coleoptera) y su potencial uso como indicadores de perturbación en la Reserva Biológica Indio Maíz. Revista Nicaragüense de Entomología, 67, 1–36.

[31] Venter, Z. S., Roos, R. E., Nowell, M. S., Rusch, G. M., Kvifte, G. M., y Sydenham, M. A. K. (2023). Comparing global Sentinel-2 land cover maps for regional species distribution modeling. Remote Sensing, 15(7), 1749.https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15071749

Cover image

How to Cite

Download Citation

Abstract

Downloads

References

Keywords

Licencia