In many tropical lowland rain forests, topographic variation increases environmental heterogeneity, thus contributing to the extraordinary biodiversity of tropical lowland forests. While a growing number of studies have addressed effects of topographic differences on tropical insect communities at regional scales (e.g., along extensive elevational gradients), surprisingly little is known about topographic effects at smaller spatial scales. The present study investigates moth assemblages in a topographically heterogeneous lowland rain forest landscape, at distances of less than a few hundred meters, in the Golfo Dulce region (SW Costa Rica). Three moth lineages—Erebidae–Arctiinae (tiger and lichen moths), the bombycoid complex, and Geometridae (inchworm moths)—were examined by means of automatic light traps in three different forest types: creek forest, slope forest, and ridge forest. Altogether, 6,543 individuals of 419 species were observed. Moth assemblages differed significantly between the three forest types regarding species richness, total abundance, and species composition. Moth richness and abundance increased more than fourfold and eightfold from creek over slope to ridge forest sites. All three taxonomic units showed identical biodiversity patterns, notwithstanding their strong differences in multiple eco‐morphological traits. An indicator species analysis revealed that most species identified as characteristic were associated either with the ridge forest alone or with ridge plus slope forests, but very few with the creek forest. Despite their mobility, local moth assemblages are highly differentially filtered from the same regional species pool. Hence, variation in environmental factors significantly affects assemblages of tropical moth species at small spatial scales.

中文翻译：

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哥斯达黎加雨林的飞蛾组合反映了小规模的地形异质性

在许多热带低地雨林中，地形变化增加了环境异质性，从而促进了热带低地森林的非凡生物多样性。虽然越来越多的研究已经解决了地形差异对区域尺度（例如，沿广泛的海拔梯度）热带昆虫群落的影响，但令人惊讶的是，对较小空间尺度的地形影响知之甚少。本研究调查了 Golfo Dulce 地区（哥斯达黎加西南部）距离不到几百米的地形异质低地雨林景观中的蛾类组合。三种蛾类——Erebidae-Arctiinae（老虎和地衣蛾）、bombycoid complex 和 Geometridae（inchworm 蛾）——在三种不同的森林类型中通过自动光阱进行了检查：溪流林、斜坡林和山脊林。总共观察到 419 个物种的 6,543 只个体。三种森林类型之间的飞蛾组合在物种丰富度、总丰度和物种组成方面存在显着差异。从小溪到斜坡到山脊森林地点，飞蛾的丰富度和丰度增加了四倍和八倍。所有三个分类单元都显示出相同的生物多样性模式，尽管它们在多个生态形态特征上存在很大差异。指示物种分析表明，大多数被确定为特征的物种要么与山脊森林有关，要么与山脊加斜坡林有关，但与溪流林有关的物种很少。尽管它们具有流动性，但本地飞蛾组合从同一区域物种库中被高度差异过滤。因此，