CHAPTER 3.

2 RANK-ABUNDANCE DISTRIBUTIONS

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CHAPTER 3.2 - RANK-ABUNDANCE DISTRIBUTIONS

Abstract Species-abundance data of Sphingidae from 93 light-trapping samples across SoutheastAsia are well described by the lognormal distribution, which fits 98 percent of samples. The logseries distribution also does not deviate significantly from data in 94 percent of the samples. The broken stick distribution is considerably poorer in fitting the data: more than one third of samples deviate significantly from the model. Rank-abundance distributions of regional (means per species) and local assemblages (means per rank) largely follow the patterns which are predicted by Hubbells (2001) neutral model, although mean frequencies of species are significantly phylogeneticly autocorrelated i.e., species are not ecologically neutral, but carry inherited traits that, to a certain extent, determine mean local abundance. Data may contain a number of methodologically caused biases, such as using pooled data of heterogeneous assemblages, and assuming equal habitat productivity (of hawkmoths) across sampling sites. These potential weaknesses are thoroughly discussed to allow for an proper interpretation of results.