Gall-Inducing Insect Species Richness as Indicators of Forest Age and Health

Fernandes, Geraldo Wilson; Almada, Emmanuel Duarte; Carneiro, Marco Antônio Alves

doi:10.1603/en09199

Cited by 33 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Based on this study, the gall‐forming insect community is the most specialised of 12 herbivorous insect guilds studied thus far in PNG lowland rainforests (Novotny et al ., , ), followed by leaf suckers and leaf miners (Novotny et al ., ; Baje et al ., ). Effective specialisation was apparently higher, considering the disparity in sample sizes, than for Neotropical cecidomyiids (Carneiro et al ., ) and 90% generally for galling insects (Raman, ), providing further evidence that the combination of gall morphology and host plant identity are an acceptable proxy for the inducing insect species, as has long been considered acceptable among gall researchers (Blanche, ; Raman et al ., ; Shorthouse et al ., ; Carneiro et al ., ; Fernandes et al ., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Gall richness was positively related to the SI of host plants in that plant species more commonly found in primary forests hosted more galling species, and thus the hypothesis that SI would have no effect is rejected. This result contrasts with two other PNG studies where plant SI was not correlated with the species richness of leaf‐chewing or sap‐sucking herbivores (Leps et al ., ), and one in Amazonia where restored rainforest stands of typical secondary vegetation age (∼10–18 years) were found to be richer in galling insect species than were primary rainforest patches (Fernandes et al ., ). From another PNG study, preliminary data suggests that there are more species of gall per angiosperm species in secondary than in primary montane rainforest plots (P. Butterill, unpublished).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The plant vigour hypothesis (Price, ) suggests that gall formers might prefer early successional vegetation because they require meristematic (new growth) plant tissue for oviposition and subsequent gall formation, which should be in abundance in secondary vegetation types, but there is only limited support for this notion by Fernandes et al . (), who found galling insects to be richer in restored secondary rainforest stands compared with primary forest.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gall‐forming insects in a lowland tropical rainforest: low species diversity in an extremely specialised guild

Butterill

Novotný

2015

Ecological Entomology

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1. Gall-forming insects are a guild of endophages that exhibit a high level of fidelity to their host plants, however, their level of host specificity is seldom explicitly tested.2. Gall-forming insect taxa from 32 species of woody tropical plants with resolved phylogenetic relationships were collected and reared, representing 15 families from all the major clades of angiosperms, at three lowland rainforest locations in Madang, Papua New Guinea (PNG).3. More than 8800 galled plant parts were collected from 78 gall morphospecies at an average of 2.4 per host plant. Total species richness at the sampling sites was estimated to be 83-89. All but one morphospecies were monophagous resulting in an effective specialisation of 0.98.4. Specific leaf weight, foliar nitrogen, the presence of latex, and the successional preference of plant species all gave a phylogenetic signal, but only plant successional preference influenced the species richness of galls on analysis of phylogenetically independent contrasts. Gall species were distributed randomly among host plant species and showed no preference for any particular plant lineage. Furthermore, most gall-forming taxa were evenly dispersed across the host plant phylogeny.5. In the tropical rainforests of New Guinea, gall-forming insects are ubiquitous but occur in species-poor assemblages. Local species richness is closely tied to the diversity of angiosperms owing to very high host specificity.6. Finally, galler species richness data from the literature across habitats and latitudes were compared and suggest that tropical rainforests may be richer in galls than previously acknowledged.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gall‐forming insects in a lowland tropical rainforest: low species diversity in an extremely specialised guild

Butterill

Novotný

2015

Ecological Entomology

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“…Gall-forming insects, frequently identified by distinctive morphotypes of the gall structure induced (Stone & Schönrogge 2003), constitute excellent tools for environmental studies (Julião et al 2005). Among their characteristics, they are sessile, easily located and strictly associated with its host plant (Mani 1964, Dreger-Jauffret & Shorthouse 1992, and galls can be potentially used as bioindicators of habitat quality (Moreira et al 2007, Fernandes et al 2010. Relationships between galling insects and their host plants are very sensitive to environment alteration, especially those that interfere on physiological features of hosts .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity of galling insects in Styrax pohlii (Styracaceae): edge effect and use as bioindicators

Araújo¹,

Julião²,

Ribeiro³

et al. 2010

RBT

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Impacts of forest fragmentation and edge effect on plant-herbivores interactions are relatively unknown, and the relationships between galling insects and their host plants are very susceptible to environmental variations. The goal of our study was to test the edge effect hypothesis for galling insects associated with Styrax pohlii (Styracaceae) host plant. Samplings were conducted at a fragment of semi-deciduous forest in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil. Thirty host plant individuals (15 at fragment edge and 15 in its interior) were sampled in July of 2007; in each plant, 10 apical branches were collected at the top, middle and bottom crown levels. Our results supported the prediction of greater richness of gall morphotypes in the edge habitat compared with remnant interior. In a similar way, gall abundance and frequency of attacked leaves were also greater in the fragment edge. These findings consequently suggest a positive response of galling insect diversity to edge effect; in the Saint-Hilaire forest, this effect probably operates through the changes in microclimatic conditions of edge habitats, which results in an increased hygrothermal stress, a determinant factor to distribution patterns of galling insects. We also concluded that these organisms could be employed as biological indicators (i) because of their host-specificity, (ii) they are sensitive to changes in plant quality, and (iii) present dissimilar and specific responses to local variation in habitat conditions. Rev. Biol. Trop. 59 (4): 1589-1597. Epub 2011 December 01.

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“…Endophytic herbivores, e.g., gall-forming and leaf-mining insects, constitute important links in terrestrial food webs (Nyman et al, 2007;Paniagua et al, 2009), and thus their recovery is an indicator of ecosystem stability and function (Fernandes et al, 2010). Information on the responses of tropical galling insects to habitat modification is very limited (but see Oyama et al (2003); Julião et al (2004); de Araú jo et al (2011); de Araú jo and do Espírito-Santo Filho (2012)).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High resilience of galling insect communities to selective and clear-cut logging in a tropical rainforest

Malinga

Valtonen

Nyeko

et al. 2014

Int. J. Trop. Insect Sci.

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Increasing anthropogenic disturbance in tropical rainforests is a major challenge to biodiversity conservation. The responses of herbivorous insect communities to habitat changes are not well understood. In this study, we investigated the resilience of galling insect communities associated with Neoboutonia macrocalyx (Euphorbiaceae) trees to logging in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Resilience was measured by comparing the species density, abundance and community structure of gallers in nine differently aged successional forests with those in adjacent primary forests. Insect galls were sampled from the canopy of 10 randomly selected trees in each successional stage, five times in a 10-month period. A total of 7219 individuals representing five galler species were recorded. No significant differences were found in the species density and overall density of gallers between the regenerating and primary forests. The mean tree height was positively correlated with the overall density of gallers. The community structure of gallers differed significantly among the successional stages, but exhibited no clear directional recovery trend. In addition, remarkable seasonal variations were observed in galler communities, with peak abundance being found in the wettest months. The results of the preset study indicate that specialist galling insects whose hosts are pioneer trees can recolonize successional sites rapidly and are resilient to the effects of selective and clear-cut logging in case primary or secondary forests with an established population of Neoboutonia host trees (source populations) are close by. Thus, recovering tropical forests can provide important habitats for galling insect biodiversity, highlighting the need to include them in management and conservation priority plans.

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Gall-Inducing Insect Species Richness as Indicators of Forest Age and Health

Cited by 33 publications

References 62 publications

Gall‐forming insects in a lowland tropical rainforest: low species diversity in an extremely specialised guild

Gall‐forming insects in a lowland tropical rainforest: low species diversity in an extremely specialised guild

Diversity of galling insects in Styrax pohlii (Styracaceae): edge effect and use as bioindicators

High resilience of galling insect communities to selective and clear-cut logging in a tropical rainforest

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