Review of the inquilinous fauna associated with insect galls in Brazilian restingas

Abstract

Several records of associated fauna, including parasitoids, inquilines, predators, and successors, have been reported by insect gall inventories in Brazilian restingas. Although most guilds are well established, inquilines have frequently been misinterpreted. In this paper, the inquilinous fauna of insect galls is revised based on five criteria: food habit; coexistence with the inducer; modification of gall tissues or production of new tissues; phylogenetic relationship with the inducer; and mobility. Gall inventories dated from 1988 to 2019 were examined, totaling 16 publications, eight of them with inquiline records. This guild was reported in 53 gall morphotypes in 44 plant species and four morphospecies distributed among 36 genera of 24 host families for a total of 65 records. Most inquilines were repositioned into the cecidophage guild and others into the kleptoparasite guild, resulting in a large reduction in the frequency of inquilines (from 65 to five records), and in first reports of cecidophages and kleptoparasites, with 46 and 13 records, respectively. Cecidophage was the most diverse guild with insects of five orders (Diptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, and Thysanoptera) while kleptoparasites were represented only by two orders (Diptera and Hymenoptera) and inquiline solely by Hymenoptera. Other results indicate that Leptothorax sp. (Formicidae) could be a successor and not an inquiline.

Insect galls from the Botanical Garden of the Museu Nacional (Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil)

“…Few records of true inquilines are known in Brazil. Maia (2022) reported some of them in areas of restinga, all represented by Hymenoptera.…”

Entomogenous galls and their associated fauna in deciduous dry forest and woodland vegetation remnants (Caatinga) in the Northern Depressão Sertaneja, Brazil

“…6,500 described species (Gagné & Jaschhof, 2021), most of which are gall-inducing. Cecidomyiids establish complex trophic interactions with plants, symbiotic fungi, predators of larvae and parasitoids of their immature stages, making them important sources of ecological information (Stireman et al 2010, Maia 2022.…”

Avaliando a diversidade de insetos galhadores e seus efeitos como engenheiros de ecossistemas no Cerrado

“…Já os inquilinos e os cecidófagos, são organismos herbívoros que se alimentam do tecido das galhas. A diferença entre eles está na proximidade filogenética que existe entre galhadores e inquilinos (Mani, 1964), e na habilidade que alguns inquilinos possuem em modificar os tecidos da galha e estimular a produção de novos tecidos (Luz & Mendonça-Júnior, 2019;Maia, 2022), e que não é compartilhada por cecidófagos março, e uma seca de abril a setembro, com precipitação anual de 1.500 mm e a temperatura média de 22ºC .…”