Galling Insects as Indicators of Habitat Quality

Toma, Tiago Shizen Pacheco; Fernandes, Geraldo Wilson; Souza, Danielle G.; Tabarelli, Marcelo; Santos, Jean Carlos

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-8783-3_9

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Third, the mechanistic relationships between plant and gall species richness might not be as strong as commonly assumed and could additionally be altered by environmental conditions (Siemann et al ., ; Muiruri & Koricheva, ). Environmental conditions can act both directly on gall‐inducing arthropods (Toma et al ., ; Araújo, ) and indirectly via the host plants, for instance when susceptibility to gall induction depends on plant stress (Fernandes et al ., ). However, the cited examples considered plant richness and environmental variables simultaneously, whereas environmental gradients on our study plots were short, allowing us to test whether gall and plant richness are positively related when environmental effects on plant richness are small.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant composition, not richness, drives occurrence of specialist herbivores

Knuff¹,

Staab²,

Frey

et al. 2019

Ecological Entomology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1. How herbivore plant diversity relationships are shaped by the interplay of biotic and abiotic environmental variables is only partly understood. For instance, plant diversity is commonly assumed to determine abundance and richness of associated specialist herbivores. However, this relationship can be altered when environmental variables such as temperature covary with plant diversity. 2. Using gall‐inducing arthropods as focal organisms, biotic and abiotic environmental variables were tested for their relevance to specialist herbivores and their relationship to host plants. In particular, the hypothesis that abundance and richness of gall‐inducing arthropods increase with plant richness was addressed. Additionally, the study asked whether communities of gall‐inducing arthropods match the communities of their host plants. 3. Neither abundance nor species richness of gall‐inducing arthropods was correlated with plant richness or any other of the tested environmental variables. Instead, the number of gall species found per plant decreased with plant richness. This indicates that processes of associational resistance may explain the specialised plant herbivore relationship in our study. 4. Community composition of gall‐inducing arthropods matched host plant communities. In specialised plant herbivore relationships, the presence of obligate host plant species is a prerequisite for the occurrence of its herbivores. 5. It is concluded that the abiotic environment may only play an indirect role in shaping specialist herbivore communities. Instead, the occurrence of specialist herbivore communities might be best explained by plant species composition. Thus, plant species identity should be considered when aiming to understand the processes that shape diversity patterns of specialist herbivores.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant composition, not richness, drives occurrence of specialist herbivores

Knuff¹,

Staab²,

Frey

et al. 2019

Ecological Entomology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Os insetos galhadores podem ser úteis na avaliação do impacto humano (Fernandes & Martins, 1985;Fernandes et al, 1995Fernandes et al, , 2009Julião et al, 2005;Fernandes & Negreiros, 2006) por estabelecer uma interação espécieespecífica de fácil identificação através dos seus morfotipos e por serem sensíveis às mudanças em suas plantas hospedeiras ou em seu ambiente (Toma et al, 2014). Algumas evidências apontam que esses insetos podem ocorrer em grande abundância em habitats modificados pela ação antrópica (Altamirano et al, 2016), porém alguns galhadores são mais sensíveis às pequenas alterações ambientais, ocorrendo apenas em ambientes conservados, o que os torna melhores indicadores da qualidade ambiental (Julião et al, 2005).…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

“…Além disso, as comunidades de plantas que sofrem estresse ambiental são mais suscetíveis ao ataque de herbívoros (Christie et al, 2010). A alteração na abundância e riqueza de insetos galhadores em ambientes estressados demonstra o potencial bioindicador dessa guilda em ambientes antrópicos (Julião et al, 2005;Moreira et al, 2007;Araújo et al, 2012;Toma et al, 2014).…”

unclassified

Riqueza de galhas de insetos em áreas de Caatinga com diferentes graus de antropização do estado da Bahia, Brasil

Brito

Costa

Carvalho-Fernandes

et al. 2018

Iheringia, Sér. Zool.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

RESUMO O conhecimento sobre galhas de insetos da Caatinga ainda é fragmentado, com grande parte do esforço científico concentrado em alguns poucos pontos nos estados de Pernambuco e Bahia. Este estudo teve como objetivo verificar a ocorrência de galhas entomógenas e realizar sua caracterização morfológica em áreas de Caatinga de Ibiassucê, Estado da Bahia, com diferentes intensidades de ação antrópica. Foram selecionadas três áreas com base nos seus diferentes graus de antropização. Em cada área amostrada foram estabelecidas quatro parcelas aleatórias de 10 m2 cada, com 10 m de distância entre si, perfazendo um total de 12 parcelas nos ambientes. Foram registrados 20 morfotipos de galhas distribuídos em nove espécies vegetais pertencentes a oito famílias. A maior riqueza de galhas foi encontrada nas áreas intermediárias (n=8), seguida das áreas antropizadas (n=7) e preservadas (n=5). Galhas globoides, marrons, com apenas uma câmara, glabras e disseminadas separadamente foram as mais frequentes. Lepidoptera, Coleoptera e Diptera (Cecidomyiidae) foram as ordens galhadoras. Os resultados aqui apresentados demonstram a importância desse tipo estudo e evidenciam a necessidade da realização de inventários de galhas em áreas pouco ou não amostradas da Caatinga.

show abstract

“…Usually, the edge area, which is a transition zone that includes biological communities of both forest fragments and the surrounding habitats, increases as the fragment size decreases (Murcia, 1995). Also, the quality of the forest fragments declines based on the extent of the edge areas' intrusion into the interiors (Toma et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat quality and edge area of fragments determine insect diversity in a heavily used landscape: Implications for forest landscape restoration

Ramalingam

Rajan

2021

Biotropica

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Worldwide, forest fragmentation and degradation have affected the flora and fauna, and are threatening the livelihood of people depending upon forest resources. It is essential to understand the underlying ecological processes to better manage such landscapes. In ecological assessments, insects are useful tools to assess the effects of human interventions such as restoration, as insects are vital for several ecosystem processes. Therefore, we studied the ecological processes that determined the distributions of the epigeic insect communities among the degraded forest fragments of the Attappady Hills (Western Ghats, India), which are being restored. Our objectives were to determine the spatial variations in the epigeic insect communities and their responses to habitat quantity and quality of the forest fragments, along with an assessment of the invasive ants' responses to fragmentation and degradation, and their effects on the native insect communities. We used pitfall traps in several forest fragments representing varying disturbance levels along an east-west gradient. The diversity of various insect taxonomic groups and functional feeding guilds were higher in smaller fragments than compared to larger fragments due to edge effects. The variations in the distributions of insect communities were explained by the habitat features that were spatially correlated. Invasive ants, Anoplolepis gracilipes, infested the smaller fragments where the vegetation quality had degraded. We conclude that an understanding of the effects of fragmentation and degradation on insect communities is vital to restoration managers as ecological restoration becomes an important strategy to reverse degradation and to revive ecological processes of fragmented forests.

show abstract

Galling Insects as Indicators of Habitat Quality

Cited by 11 publications

References 34 publications

Plant composition, not richness, drives occurrence of specialist herbivores

Plant composition, not richness, drives occurrence of specialist herbivores

Riqueza de galhas de insetos em áreas de Caatinga com diferentes graus de antropização do estado da Bahia, Brasil

Habitat quality and edge area of fragments determine insect diversity in a heavily used landscape: Implications for forest landscape restoration

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About