difference between most devious forest and write the dry forest
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Dry Forest What is the level of diversity in tropical dry forests? A lowland dry forest adjacent to a lowland rain forest (such as a portion of the Pacific dry and Atlantic wet sides of northern Costa Rica) sustains a fauna and flora about 50 to 100% as species-rich as does the neighboring rain forest (Janzen, 1986a). Floras are the least similar in richness of species, largely because the dry forest epiphytes and trees are substantially less rich in species. The greatest similarity in species richness is represented by mammals and major insect groups such as butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) and Hymenoptera such as bees, wasps, and ants. Species overlap between the two areas, ranging from less than 5% (e.g., epiphytes, amphibians) to as high as 80% (e.g., sphingid moths, mammals). In the 11,000-hectare dry forest of Santa Rosa National Park in Costa Rica, I estimate that there are 13,000 species of insects, and fairly accurate counts indicate that there are 175 breeding species of birds (Stiles, 1983). There are also 115 species of nonmarine mammals (Wilson, 1983) and about 75 species of reptiles and amphibians (Savage and Villa, 1986). All the species of small herbs and grasses have not yet been collected, but the final list of angiosperms (which include vascular plants such as orchids and trees) will probably not exceed 700 species (Janzen and Liesner, 1980). When such a dry forest habitat is replaced by fencerows, ditchsides, unkempt pastures, and woodlots, the species richness of the breeding fauna and flora is reduced by 90 to 95%.