Composition of the Arctiidae species (Insecta, Lepidoptera) in Cerrado areas

Composition of the Arctiidae species (Insecta, Lepidoptera) in Cerrado areas. The Cerrado biome covers 23% of the Brazilian territory and includes nearly one third of the estimated biota of the country. The aim of this article is to know the species composition of the nocturnal Arctiidae and describe the betadiversity patterns among 14 Cerrado areas. We collected a total of 1,016 individuals, representing 197 morphospecies. Estimates of species richness using jackknife 2 and Chao 2 indicated that the region should contain, respectively, 375.7 and 383.8 species.The regression between species richness and number of vegetation types in the sampled areas was not significant. The beta-diversity (Sorensen distance) among study sites was positively related to geographical distances. The multivariate analyses indicated that, except for Pedregulho, study areas in Sao Paulo State were distinct from those in Goias and Tocantins States. Pooling study sites within vegetation types revealed that fauna of gallery forests and "cerradoes" were similar and, together, were different from those collected in open vegetacional formations ("campo sujo" and "cerrado sensu stricto"). We suggested that vegetation characteristics and geographical distance are important factors in the determination of Arctiidae assemblages in the Brazilian Cerrado.