Arthropod faunal similarity of Bornean rain forest trees

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Abstract
1. Arthropod samples, collected by insecticide fogging ten Bornean lowland rain forest trees, were sorted to species and used to study some of the determinants of faunal similarity of these trees.2. Similarity indices were calculated between pairs of trees for guilds of beetles, beetle families and for different orders and other families of insects.3. Multiple regression analyses of five independent variables of the trees (taxonomic similarity, distance apart, vertical canopy overlap, similarity in tree height, epiphytic load) were carried out against these similarity indices.4. In eight of the eighteen insect groups analysed, taxonomic similarity of the trees is the most important variable affecting their species composition, accounting for a maximum of 29.4% of the variation.5. For the Homoptera, Gryllidae, Anthicidae, Chrysomeloidea and scavengers, distance between the trees and the similarity of the trees’epiphyte load have a greater effect on their faunal similarities than taxonomic similarity of the trees.6. The maximum variation accounted for by variables with significant T ratios was 38.6% in the Anthicidae. In four groups, the Formicidae, Heteroptera, Galerucinae and Corylophidae, none of the variables was significant.7. These data may support the view that for many insect groups there is less host‐specificity in the tropics than in temperate regions.