Phylogenetic indices for measuring the diet breadths of phytophagous insects

Symons, Fernley B.; Beccaloni, George

doi:10.1007/s004420050804

Cited by 42 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Subsequently, we calculated the mean PD value for all parasitoid species within a particular parasitoid group. Parasitoids exploiting three or more individuals of the same species and no other species were considered monophagous, and their PD values were set to zero, while single‐ and doubletons were excluded from the analysis (Symons & Beccaloni, 1999). …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertical canopy gradient shaping the stratification of leaf‐chewer–parasitoid interactions in a temperate forest

Šigut

Šigutová

Šipoš

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Knowledge about herbivores and their parasitoids in forest canopies remains limited, despite their diversity and ecological importance. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that shape the herbivore–parasitoid community structure, particularly the effect of vertical gradient. We investigated a quantitative community dataset of exposed and semiconcealed leaf‐chewing larvae and their parasitoids along a vertical canopy gradient in a temperate forest. We sampled target insects using an elevated work platform in a 0.2 ha broadleaf deciduous forest plot in the Czech Republic. We analyzed the effect of vertical position among three canopy levels (first [lowest], second [middle], and third [highest]) and tree species on community descriptors (density, diversity, and parasitism rate) and food web structure. We also analyzed vertical patterns in density and parasitism rate between exposed and semiconcealed hosts, and the vertical preference of the most abundant parasitoid taxa in relation to their host specificity. Tree species was an important determinant of all community descriptors and food web structure. Insect density and diversity varied with the vertical gradient, but was only significant for hosts. Both host guilds were most abundant in the second level, but only the density of exposed hosts declined in the third level. Parasitism rate decreased from the first to third level. The overall parasitism rate did not differ between guilds, but semiconcealed hosts suffered lower parasitism in the third level. Less host‐specific taxa (Ichneumonidae, Braconidae) operated more frequently lower in the canopy, whereas more host‐specific Tachinidae followed their host distribution. The most host‐specific Chalcidoidea preferred the third level. Vertical stratification of insect density, diversity, and parasitism rate was most pronounced in the tallest tree species. Therefore, our study contradicts the general paradigm of weak arthropod stratification in temperate forest canopies. However, in the network structure, vertical variation might be superseded by variation among tree species.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertical canopy gradient shaping the stratification of leaf‐chewer–parasitoid interactions in a temperate forest

Šigut

Šigutová

Šipoš

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus far, these have been approximated by supraspecific taxonomic ranks. Host range is then described as the number of host plant species and various supraspecific taxa (Symons & Beccaloni 1999). As information on plant phylogeny accumulates, this imprecise approach will become superseded by host specificity measures based on host plant phylogeny, defined by cladograms (Symons & Beccaloni 1999;Webb et al 2002).…”

Section: Measuring Host Specificitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Host range is then described as the number of host plant species and various supraspecific taxa (Symons & Beccaloni 1999). As information on plant phylogeny accumulates, this imprecise approach will become superseded by host specificity measures based on host plant phylogeny, defined by cladograms (Symons & Beccaloni 1999;Webb et al 2002). New phylogenetic measures of host specificity, including the clade dispersion index (Symons & Beccaloni 1999) and the net relatedness index (Webb et al 2002), quantify overall clustering of host taxa on a phylogenetic tree.…”

Section: Measuring Host Specificitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Host specificity of insect herbivores in tropical forests

2005

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Studies of host specificity in tropical insect herbivores are evolving from a focus on insect distribution data obtained by canopy fogging and other mass collecting methods, to a focus on obtaining data on insect rearing and experimentally verified feeding patterns. We review this transition and identify persisting methodological problems. Replicated quantitative surveys of plant-herbivore food webs, based on sampling efforts of an order of magnitude greater than is customary at present, may be cost-effectively achieved by small research teams supported by local assistants. Survey designs that separate historical and ecological determinants of host specificity by studying herbivores feeding on the same plant species exposed to different environmental or experimental conditions are rare. Further, we advocate the use of host-specificity measures based on plant phylogeny. Existing data suggest that a minority of species in herbivore communities feed on a single plant species when alternative congeneric hosts are available. Thus, host plant range limits tend to coincide with those of plant genera, rather than species or suprageneric taxa. Host specificity among tropical herbivore guilds decreases in the sequence: granivoresO leaf-minersOfructivoresOleaf-chewersZsap-suckersOxylophagesOroot-feeders, thus paralleling patterns observed in temperate forests. Differences in host specificity between temperate and tropical forests are difficult to assess since data on tropical herbivores originate from recent field studies, whereas their temperate counterparts derive from regional host species lists, assembled over many years. No major increase in host specificity from temperate to tropical communities is evident. This conclusion, together with the recent downward revisions of extremely high estimates of tropical species richness, suggest that tropical ecosystems may not be as biodiverse as previously thought.

show abstract

“…Analyses of host specificity have mostly approximated phylogenetic relationships between host-plant species by their supraspecific taxonomic ranks that, however, are not commensurate across plant lineages (Losos 1996). New phylogenetic measures of host specificity and breadth (Symons & Beccaloni 1999, Webb et al 2002 have not yet been widely applied (but see Weiblen et al 2005). Phylogenetic constraints on host-plant selection may be also examined as a relationship of species turnover between herbivore communities and the phylogenetic distance of their host-plant species (Novotny et al 2002a).…”

Section: Herbivores and Host Phylogenymentioning

confidence: 99%

Insects on Plants: Diversity of Herbivore Assemblages Revisited

Lewinsohn

Novotný

Basset

2005

Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst.

248

205

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Key Words herbivory, insect-plant interactions, tropical insects, local and regional richness, species diversity ■ Abstract The diversity and composition of herbivore assemblages was a favored theme for community ecology in the 1970s and culminated in 1984 with Insects on Plants by Strong, Lawton and Southwood. We scrutinize findings since then, considering analyses of country-wide insect-host catalogs, field studies of local herbivore communities, and comparative studies at different spatial scales. Studies in tropical forests have advanced significantly and offer new insights into stratification and host specialization of herbivores. Comparative and long-term data sets are still scarce, which limits assessment of general patterns in herbivore richness and assemblage structure. Methods of community phylogenetic analysis, complex networks, spatial and among-host diversity partitioning, and metacommunity models represent promising approaches for future work. INTRODUCTIONSeldom in the history of science is an unmistakable cornerstone laid for a new subject, but Southwood (1961) was undoubtedly the first to consider insect herbivore richness and its variation among host-plant species a phenomenon worthy of explanation. Southwood's inaugural papers remained largely unappreciated until MacArthur & Wilson (1967) presented their theory of island biogeography and Janzen (1968) proposed that its theoretical framework could be applied to the diversity of herbivores on host plants. Within a decade or so, sufficient evidence had been gathered on the diversity of herbivorous insects associated with various host plants to allow inferences on the role of various causative processes, and in 1984 this became the leading theme of the book Insects on Plants (Strong et al. 1984).Insect-plant interactions grew into a research domain in its own right, but its emphasis has shifted toward population-level processes and interactions, and to 598LEWINSOHN NOVOTNY BASSET phylogenetic analyses of herbivore and plant lineages (e.g., Futuyma & Mitter 1996, Herrera & Pellmyr 2002, Schoonhoven et al. 1998. Thus, despite their importance in the 1970s and 1980s, the size of herbivore-host communities and their determinants has seemingly drifted from attention. Twenty years after the publication of Insects on Plants, the time seemed opportune to consider further developments on its leading questions, which remain as relevant as before. We thus set out to evaluate the extent to which subsequent work has produced (a) major data sets that support earlier findings and hypotheses, (b) new empirical results that lead to novel insights, and (c) substantial advances in theory or explanatory models.Our concern here is the size, structure, and composition of herbivore assemblages on particular plant species as well as the processes or factors that determine their variation. We do not consider the effects of herbivores on their hosts or on plant communities.Three fairly distinct approaches can be recognized in studies of host-associated herbivore assemblag...

show abstract

Phylogenetic indices for measuring the diet breadths of phytophagous insects

Cited by 42 publications

References 27 publications

Vertical canopy gradient shaping the stratification of leaf‐chewer–parasitoid interactions in a temperate forest

Vertical canopy gradient shaping the stratification of leaf‐chewer–parasitoid interactions in a temperate forest

Host specificity of insect herbivores in tropical forests

Insects on Plants: Diversity of Herbivore Assemblages Revisited

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About