Frutification Intensity and Synchrony Reduce Seed Predation by Pachymerus Nucleorum (Bruchinae) During Pre-Dispersion of the Tropical Palm Syagrus Coronata (Arecaeae)

Contrasting patterns of host selection and performance of insect seed predators on three sympatric host plant species

“…Although many studies have suggested that the architectural complexity and appearance of plants (e.g., Fagundes et al, 2013;Ferreira et al, 2022;Ramírez & Traveset, 2010) and seed mass (e.g., Azcárate et al, 2010;Foffová et al, 2020;Gripenberg et al, 2019;Palmer et al, 2022;Souza & Fagundes, 2017) positively drive host plant selection and seed predation by insects, other aspects involving the plant-EPI interaction can also affect this relationship. For example, the pattern of resource distribution in the landscape (Abdala-Roberts et al, 2010;Rossi et al, 2011;Pardini et al, 2017;Weissflog et al, 2017;Kuchenbecker & Fagundes, 2018;Coutinho et al, 2019) and the dispersal ability of herbivores (Otway et al, 2005;Rossi et al, 2011) might also explain variation in insect attack on their host plants.…”

“…Pre-dispersal seed predation (PDSP) for example, represents an important, yet poorly understood, limiting factor in the production of viable seeds in many ecosystems (Abdala-Roberts et al, 2010;Gripenberg, 2018;Perea et al, 2020;Souza & Fagundes, 2017). PDSP also varies broadly among habitats (Turner et al, 1996;Bonal et al, 2012;Jeffs et al, 2018;Rodrigues et al 2012), plant species (Fox et al, 2012;Xu et al, 2015), and individual plant traits (Basset et al, 2021;Ferreira et al, 2022). The understanding of mechanisms of seed selection used by insect predators, for instance, yields valuable insights for insect evolutionary ecology (e.g., Peguero et al, 2017;Silva & Rossi, 2019) and applied entomology (e.g., Bogdziewicz et al, 2019;Dechaine et al, 2010), as seeds are primary food sources for different wild animals and humans (Nambara & Nonogaki, 2012).…”

“…The intermingled traits of plant size, height and structural complexity are plant attributes that can affect the selection of feeding and oviposition sites by many herbivorous insects (e.g., Espírito-Santo et al, 2007;Ferreira et al, 2022;Lawton, 1983;Pardini et al, 2017). Architecturally more complex plants, such as trees, are colonised by more herbivore species than shrubs and herbs (Lawton, 1983).…”

“…This pattern occurs because larger-sized plant species are more easily found by herbivores (see also Fenner et al, 2002) and have more sites for oviposition, shelter, and escape from natural enemies (Jeffries & Lawton, 1984;Lara et al, 2008;Marquis et al, 2002). In this context, some authors have suggested that plant architecture may also be positively related to seed predation (Ferreira et al, 2022;Madeira et al, 2013;Ramírez & Traveset, 2010;Souza & Fagundes, 2017;Xu et al, 2015). Thus, we expect a higher percentage of seed predation on trees than on congeneric shrubs, but this pattern can be affected by environmental variations and ecological interactions in plant/EPI systems (Ramírez & Traveset, 2010;Souza & Fagundes, 2017;Yang et al, 2006).…”