Nocturnal moth inventory in Malagasy tapia woods, with focus on silk-producing species

In Madagascar, the tapia woods (Uapaca bojeri) shelter a wide diversity of moth species, among which the landibe, a silk moth of the genus Borocera. Threatened by diverse pressures – anthropogenic and environmental – its populations have drastically decreased during the last twenty years. We report on night inventories by means of light traps, performed in the tapia woods. We observed at least 68 species, notably another silk producing moth, Europtera punctillata, whose caterpillars are called landifotsy by villagers. We unveiled specific behavioural traits of species sampled during four successive night periods, between 8:00 pm and 4:00 am. sixty-eight moth species were observed, some of them are silk producing species, including landifotsy (E. punctillata).