Host Plant Associations and Parasitism of South EcuadorianEoisSpecies (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) Feeding onPeperomia(Piperaceae)

Abstract

The very species-rich tropical moth genus Eois Hübner (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) is a promising model group for studying host plant specialization and adaptive radiation. While most Eois species are assumed to be specialized herbivores on Piper L. species, records on other plant taxa such as Peperomia Ruiz & Pavón (Piperaceae) are still relatively scarce. Moreover, little is known about life history traits of most species, and only a few caterpillars have been described so far. We collected caterpillars associated with Peperomia (Piperaceae) host plants from June 2012 to January 2013 in three elevational bands of montane and elfin rainforests on the eastern slopes of the Andes in southern Ecuador. Caterpillars were systematically searched and reared to the adult stage. We were able to delimitate ten species of Eois on Peperomia by comparison of larval and adult morphology and by using 658 bp fragments of the mitochondrial COI gene (barcode sequences). Three of these species, Eois albosignata (Dognin), Eois bolana (Dognin), and Eois chasca (Dognin), are validly described whereas the other seven taxa represent interim morphospecies, recognized unequivocally by their DNA barcodes, and their larval and adult morphology. We provide information about their host plants, degree of parasitism, and describe the larval stages in their last instar. Additionally, caterpillars and moths are illustrated in color plates. This is the first comparative study dealing with Eois moths whose caterpillars feed on Peperomia hosts.

Caterpillar assemblages on Chusquea bamboos in southern Ecuador: abundance, guild structure, and the influence of host plant quality

“…This should likely translate into an increase in caterpillar leaf damage on Chusquea bamboos with altitude, which was, however, not measured in this study. The higher caterpillar density in the elfin forest might be a result of reduced parasitism and predation rates with increasing elevation in tropical mountain ecosystems (Connahs et al ., ; Sam et al ., ; Seifert et al ., ). We also recorded an increased number of species per sample in the elfin forest of Cajanuma.…”

Turning Up the Heat on a Hotspot: DNA Barcodes Reveal 80% More Species of Geometrid Moths along an Andean Elevational Gradient

“…Often, the members of such species complexes also differ in some other dimensions of their ecological niches such as larval hostplants (e.g. [ 56 ]).…”

Diversification rates, host plant shifts and an updated molecular phylogeny of Andean Eois moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae)

“…A previous molecular phylogeny of Eois by [ 11 ] provided strong support for the monophyly of the genus Eois as a whole, as well as for the clades formed by the Neotropical and Old World members of Eois , respectively. Eois moths have been the focus of rearing programmes and host plant studies [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. They also were central to studies on tritrophic relationships [ 16 ], on interactions with host plant secondary metabolites [ 17 , 18 ], on general biodiversity patterns in the Andes [ 10 , 19 , 20 ], on biogeographic and taxonomic description patterns [ 9 ] and they served as a model for a case study on sequencing of old type specimens [ 21 ].…”