Abstract:

The work is devoted to the study of the fauna of the geometer moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) in the Ustyurt State Nature Reserve, a little-studied territory of Kazakhstan. The Ustyurt State Reserve is located in the southwestern part of the Ustyurt plateau on the territory of the Karakiya district of the Mangistau region (Southwestern Kazakhstan). The basis for the work was the authors’ own collections, as well as collection materials from the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Bavarian State Zoological Collections (Germany). In the course of the work, 32 species of moths were collected. The species composition and arealogical structure of the geometer moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) of the reserve have been analyzed.  

Key words: Ustyurt, Reserve, Lepidoptera, Geometridae.

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Introduction:

The Ustyurt reserve is the only reserve in the Western region of Kazakhstan, which was organized in 1984 with the aim of preserving the natural complex of the desert zone in its natural form. The Ustyurt Reserve is located on the eastern side of the Karakiya district of the Mangistau region, along the Karagan threshold, Kokesem, Kendirli, Elshibek and the rocky peaks of the Western Plateau, along with the sands of Karynzharyk and Saksorka, and covers an area of 223,342 hectares.

Landscapes in the reserve are diverse: endless steppes and deserts with many hollows, where you can still see the channels of ancient rivers. Kendirlisor, a large valley, stretches from the south-west of the reserve to the north-east. The bottom of the depression is below sea level.

The flora of the reserve is not so rich, because the Ustyurt reserve is mostly a desert area. Often there are semi-shrubs - various types of wormwood, biyurgun, sarsazan. Of the tree species here, in the form of small and rarely scattered groves, only black oak grows, typical plants for this area are gray wormwood, feather grass, bolych, sorghum, etc. Rare plant species also grow on the territory of the reserve - common hogweed, common softfruit, Khiva sorghum , small resin, strong spurge, turanga groves.

Butterflies of the family Geometridae are one of the most widespread families of the Lepidoptera order. In terms of the wealth of species, warblers are the second. More than 23,000 described species are known in the world fauna (Scoble and Hausmann 2007). 

Up to now Ustirt State Nature Reserve Lepidoptera have not been systematically and purposefully studied in the territory. There are no articles in the literature devoted to the study of the inhabitants of the studied region. The works of Hausman (2001, 2004) and P.Yu. Gorbunov (2011) contain information about some species inhabiting the study area; the fauna has not been practically studied to date.

The purpose of this article is to fill the gap in knowledge about the fauna on the territory of the Ustyurt State Nature Reserve.