ABSTRACT

The development and application of quantitative methods for assessing the viability and risk of extinction of populations requires considerable background demographic and life-history data of the modelled species and populations. Typically such data are difficult to obtain for most invertebrate species due to time or resource constraints. Quantitative sampling methodologies are not well developed for the bulk of invertebrate species and fieldbased estimates of migration, survival, fecundity, etc. are problematic. However the use of genetic-marker technologies such as allozymes and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence data has the potential for inferences to be made about underlying demographic processes within and among populations useful for quantitative model development. In this paper I will show how such marker technologies have been applied to an endangered species of grassland-inhabiting moth, Synemon plana, to infer some fundamental life-history and demographic parameters.

INTRODUCTION

Effective conservation management of threatened species requires considerable detailed information on the life history, demographics and population structure of the taxa of interest. In addition, the development of quantitative models of population persistence [e.g. population viability analyses (PVA)] almost universally requires parameters such as generation time, fecundity, fertility, adult and juvenile mortality and migration as model inputs (e.g. Burgman et al., 1993; Lacy, 1993b). For many species, the acquisition of such data is not overly problematic (although may involve many years of detailed field work), and these are the same types of data used in the original determination of the species' threatened status.