Species Composition and Assessment of Sphingidae in Mt. Agad-Agad, Iligan City, Philippines

Abstract

Sphingidae (Hawkmoth or Sphinxmoth) is a known bioindicator that is naturally af-fected by environmental issues such as deforestation and pollution. Members of this family are widely distributed in Southeast Asia and play vital roles as indicators of habitat quality and biomass degradation. This study highlights the diversity and as-sessment of hawkmoths of Mt. Agad-Agad (Sitio Langinlanon, Barangay Puga-an) on Iligan City. Two sampling stations were established, the upper and lower Mt. Agad-Agad. Light trap sampling using 2 ×3 m2white silk cloth and 500 watts light bulb was established in selected points of the sampling stations. Six species belong-ing to four genera were recorded of which two species, Acosmeryx socratesand Pol-yptychus trilineatusphilippinensis, were found very rare in the area. Station 2 (lower Mt. Agad-Agad) had the highest number of species recorded compared to Station 1 (upper Mt. Agad-Agad). However, there is no significant difference between the two (t=0.59, critical t=2.2281, p=0.56) sampling stations in terms of species composi-tion. Moreover, two species from the genus Ambulyxare the endemic species ob-served, viz, A. bakeriand A. wilemani.

Keywords

• ambulyx
• bioindicators
• hawkmoth
• light trap
• sphinx moths