Moths as ecological indicators: A review

Abstract :

The unpredictable and dangerous nature of climate change has grown substantially from last century, it leads to various hazardous problems such as global warming, storms, heavy rains, change of land use pattern, drier climate and forceful migration of millions of organisms. Insects have played key roles in terrestrial ecosystems, yet they have been ignored in conservation approaches. Insects are slowly making their way into the biodiversity studies. The sudden and uncertain changes call for the use of indicator organisms. These indicator organisms show us the changes occurring in our surroundings. Moths are affected by the minute changes in climate and also show changes in reproduction, mortality, dispersion and development. Many experimental findings were conducted by scientific community globally and found that moths are suitable indicators for open areas as well as forest patches. Moths being functionally important and huge, diverse group, can be used as potential bio-indicator group in the present scenario of environmental degradation. Moths as ecological indicators is established globally covering a wide range of current environmental issues like habitat fragmentation, climatic changes and deforestation etc.


Keyword :

Indicator, Lepidoptera, moths, environment degradation, diverse, climatic changes


Author(s) : Dar, A. A., Jamal, K.
Downloads : 97
Published Issue : 2021 Vol. 16 Number 2


2021 Vol. 16 Number 2