Response of moth assemblages to pine-grassland restoration for red-cockaded woodpeckers

I examined community composition, species richness, and abundance of forest moths in three restored pine-grasslands and three nearby areas with similar site characteristics but no history of restoration management. My study addressed questions of how restoration practices impact moth species richness and abundance, whether distinct moth communities are associated with restored and unrestored plots, how vegetation has responded to restoration treatments, and how moths have responded to vegetation. I expected that changes in moth community composition could be predicted by host specialization, with species having narrow feeding niches occurring in greatest numbers where essential resources were most abundant. As expected, moth species richness and abundance were highest at unrestored sites. Diversity measures, however, indicate that overall species diversity was greatest at treated sites. Similarity indices, cluster analysis, and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) indicated that restoration sites were more similar to each other than to control sites, and control compartments likewise were most similar to other control compartments in terms of moth community composition. Vegetation analyses revealed that treated and control sites differed in plant species composition, structure, and successional stages. Host-plant generalists were common at restoration sites, whereas specialists tended to be rare, possibly indicating that diet-restricted species are more susceptible to disturbance to vegetation. Differences in abundance of food specialist groups appear to be related to forest type and structure.