Resource Number: 17330
Title: Rare, Declining, and Poorly Known Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) of Forests and Woodlands in the Eastern United States
Publisher: USDA Forest Service
Description: The eastern United States is rich in both plant and animal diversity relative to other temperate regions. Vankat (1990) identified nearly 30 types of eastern forests. Forest types were delineated based on soils, rainfall, temperature, latitude/elevation, fire frequency, and physiognomic characteristics such as deciduous versus evergreen. This region encompasses wide-ranging environmental gradients varying from tropical conditions in the Florida Keys to alpine mountaintops in New York and New England. The Appalachians (Figure 1) and other mountains from Georgia to Maine provide a myriad of landscape complexities and microclimates that allow many different species to live in this region, sometimes in areas far removed from their normal ranges. The relatively flat, sandy soils of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains support distinct forests and open woodlands, such as pinelands, oak scrub, and cypress swamps. The eastern United States also has a number of specialized natural communities, such as barrens, white cedar swamps, and savannas, that often harbor rare species of plants and animals. Good overviews of the biodiversity and ecology of forests in the eastern United States are provided in Vankat (1979), Sutton and Sutton (1985), Christensen (1988), Greller (1988), Kricher and Morrison (1988), Barbour and Christensen (1993), and Fralish and Franklin (2002).
Lepidoptera are the butterflies and moths. These insects are characterized by having the legs, wings, and body covered with scales. The terms Macrolepidoptera and Microlepidoptera are used in a couple of different ways. Informally, as the words indicate, these terms are used to differentiate the larger moths and butterflies from the very small, sometimes tiny, moths. The designations Microlepidoptera and Macrolepidoptera also have a more formal taxonomic definition that does not always conform with size. They differentiate the more primitive and primarily smaller moths from the more advanced and generally larger moths and butterflies.
Last Updated: January 19, 2021
Domain(s)/Area(S):
- Entomology
Locations:
| Subject |
|---|
| butterflies, moths or skippers |