Butterfly and moth habitat specialisation changes along an elevational gradient of tropical forests on Mount Cameroon

Abstract

Niche breadth is a key ecological trait influencing species distribution, persistence, vulnerability to environmental change, and interspecific interactions. While the elevational niche-breadth hypothesis predicts broader ecological niches at higher elevations due to increased environmental stress and heterogeneity, empirical tests have mostly focused on food specialisation, with habitat specialisation remaining largely overlooked. Here, we provide the first direct test of this hypothesis using habitat characteristics, analysing fruit-feeding butterflies and moths along a complete tropical forest gradient on Mount Cameroon. We quantified habitat-related niche breadth using the Outlying Mean Index across 96 forest plots spanning 350-2200 m a.s.l., employing two complementary metrics: absolute niche breadth (ANB) based on the total range of habitat conditions occupied across the gradient, and within-elevation niche breadth (WENB) reflecting the proportion of local habitat heterogeneity utilized at each elevation. Forest structural heterogeneity increased steeply with elevation. In response, butterfly communities showed a substantial upslope broadening of ANB, particularly in Charaxinae and Satyrinae. Moth families exhibited similar but weaker patterns. In contrast, WENB showed no consistent elevational patterns and was more variable among lepidopteran groups. These results support the elevational niche-breadth hypothesis for habitat specialisation in tropical butterflies, likely reflecting increased habitat opportunity space and reduced competition at higher elevations. However, the decoupling of ANB and WENB highlights that broader availability of environmental conditions does not necessarily translate into more generalised local habitat use, suggesting constraints from behavioural preferences, resource distributions, or biotic interactions. By disentangling overall and local habitat niche breadths, our study reveals unrecognised complexity in elevational specialisation patterns and provides new insights into how tropical insect respond to environmental gradients.