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Elevation creates a variety of physical conditions in a relatively short distance, which makes mountains suitable for studying the effects of climate change on biodiversity. We investigated the importance of climate and vegetation for the distribution of butterfl ies from 800 to 1400 m elevation. We sampled butterfl ies, and woody and rosette plants and measured air temperature and humidity, wind speed and gust, and solar radiation. We partitioned diversity to assess the processes underlying community shifts across altitudes -species loss versus replacement. We assessed the strength of the association among butterfl y, vegetation, and climate. Butterfl y richness and abundance decreased with altitude, and species composition changed along the elevation. Changes in butterfl y composition with altitude were mainly through species replacement and by abundance increases in some species being compensated by decreases in others. Since the fl oristic diversity decreased with altitude due to soil conditions, and butterfl ies are closely related to their host plants, this could explain species replacement with altitude. Overall, we found a stronger association of butterfl y community with vegetation than climate, but plant community and climate were also strongly associated between them. Butterfl y richness was more strongly associated with plant richness than with temperature, while the reverse was true for butterfl y abundance, which was more strongly associated with temperature than with plant richness. We must consider the complementary roles of resource and conditions in species distribution.

As biodiversity loss rapidly increases through habitat degradation in the Amazon rainforest, the need to characterize and understand the species diversity becomes even more important. In this study we used empirical and published datasets to assess the diversity patterns and produce the first overview of the sphingid fauna in the Brazilian Amazon. We compared the diversity patterns in distinct areas in the biome by analyzing hawkmoth assemblages considering both species composition and abundance, and asked whether these communities are structured according to environmental factors. Additionally, we provide information of diel activity pattern of sphingids and evaluated the importance of time in sampling effort. We found that the Brazilian Amazon may harbor more than 80 % of the hawkmoth species that occur in Brazil and more than half of the species recorded in South America. Species composition and assemblage structure is determined by the quality of the habitat (disturbed or undisturbed vegetation), temperature and relative humidity. Finally, we show that the temporal activity of sphingids presents distinct patterns at different taxonomic levels, highlighting the importance of full night collections to better characterize the fauna. Our results show that habitat alteration can be an important factor affecting sphingid assemblages, illustrating the importance of Protected Areas in species maintenance.