Spatial structure of forest lepidopteran communities in oak hickory forests of Indiana.

The response of forest insect communities to disturbances such as timber harvest will likely depend on the underlying spatial structure of species assemblages before the disturbance occurs. Unfortunately, many studies of forest management implicitly assume homogeneity of community structure before harvest; postlogging communities are inferred to be a direct product of the imposed management. The goal of this study is to examine variation in the community structure of forest Lepidoptera using the pretimber harvest data on Lepidoptera from 20 forest sites within three watersheds at Morgan Monroe State Forest, IN.