A view from the mountain top: biodiversity of moths on Pink Mountain in British Columbia’s northern alpine tundra

Abstract

It is critical to take inventory of insect biodiversity, as a first step to create a baseline in which one can evaluate threats and implement measures to protect biodiversity in the face of the massive declines insects are facing around the globe. However, given the immense scale of this task it is important to prioritize the collection of insect biodiversity data for locations that are at greatest risk. Here, we focus our efforts on cataloging moth biodiversity in the northern alpine habitats of Pink Mountain, British Columbia (BC), Canada. Located in BC’s far north this unique sub-alpine habitat could be at heightened risk of species loss due to accelerated climate change impacts in the north, industry threats, and physical isolation. From 2014 to 2023, we collected moths in the sub-alpine habitat of Pink Mountain using various insect trapping methods (light traps, sweep netting, and interception traps). We identified species based on morphology and generated COI barcodes for select species that were difficult to distinguish based on morphology. Over 140 Lepidoptera species and 14 unique genera were inventoried from Pink Mountain, with moths from the families Noctuida (62%), Geometridae (13%), and Tortricidae (10%) being most abundant, respectively. Conservation status rankings are noted for species as applicable and digital records of all specimens have been deposited in the Canadian National Collection database for future reference.