Insect community structures along elevation gradients on Mt. Seongak-san, South Korea

Insect communities along three elevation gradients on Mt. Seongak-san, South Korea, were investigated from May to September 2013 using traps in order to collect basic data for distributional monitoring of species in a forest ecosystem. A total of 2698 individuals of 309 moth species of 18 families were collected in bucket-light traps, along with 196 individuals of 26 ground-beetle species and 11,276 individuals of 14 ant species in pit-fall traps. The insect community at each site was analyzed using analysis of variance and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS). The ground-beetle and ant abundances varied with elevation. The NMS showed distinct clusters of moths between the ground-beetle and ant distributions with elevation and month. The community-level responses of these insect groups to those gradients were analyzed.