The Roles of Trophic Interactions, Competition and Landscape in Determining Metacommunity Structure of a Seed-Feeding Weevil and Its Parasitoids

Nieminen, Matti; Nouhuys, Saskya van

doi:10.5735/086.054.0109

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(55 reference statements)

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“…This relationship has been confirmed in several other studies, as M. incultus has been reported being reared from the same host which is monophagous on P. lanceolata (e.g. Dickason 1968, Mohd Norowi et al 2000, Hancock et al 2013, Herbst et al 2013, Wäschke et al 2014, Nieminen & Vikberg 2015, Nieminen & van Nouhuys 2017. Moreover, Hancock et al (2013), Herbst et al (2013Herbst et al ( , 2017 and Wäschke et al (2014) list another curculionid Mecinus labilis (Herbst, 1795), also monophagous on P. lanceolata, as a host of M. incultus.…”

Section: Species Treatmentssupporting

confidence: 69%

“…Ecological aspects of the insect community of P. lanceolata have been intensively studied in Åland Islands (SW Finland) and Germany in recent decades, including metapopulation, community and metacommunity studies (e.g., Lei et al 1997, Nieminen et al 2004, van Nouhuys & Hanski 2005, Ojanen et al 2013, Herbst et al 2017, Nieminen & van Nouhuys 2017. Therefore, the precise interspecific relationships of each species of this community are of crucial importance for ecological implications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mesopolobus incultus auct. (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) contains two distinct species: Mesopolobus incultus (Walker, 1834) and Mesopolobus amyntor (Walker, 1845)

et al. 2018

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Mesopolobus incultus auct. is hypothesized to consist of twodifferent species, M. amyntor (Walker) and M. incultus (Walker). This hypothesis is supported bymolecular(cytochromec oxidase subunit I, i.e. COI), morphological and biologicaldata.Mesopolobus amyntor is a primary parasitoid of Mecinus pascuorum (Gyllenhal) and M. labilis (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) on Plantago lanceolata. Mesopolobus incultus is a primary parasitoid of Protapion fulvipes (Geoffroy) (Coleoptera: Apionidae) on Trifolium repens and T. pratense, and hasalso been inferred to act as a secondary parasitoid (hyperparasitoid) of Spintherus dubius (Nees) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) or Bruchophagus gibbus (Boheman) (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae). The results of this study lead to following nomenclatural changes: M. amyntor is removed from synonymy under M. incultus, and Pteromalus urgo, P. belesis and P. berecynthos, all described by Walker, are synonymized under M. amyntor. The species are diagnosed with characters illustrated.

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Section: Species Treatmentssupporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mesopolobus incultus auct. (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) contains two distinct species: Mesopolobus incultus (Walker, 1834) and Mesopolobus amyntor (Walker, 1845)

et al. 2018

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“…The loss of natural enemies in fragmented landscapes may release prey populations from top-down control (Kruess and Tscharntke, 1994;Anton et al, 2007;Schüepp et al, 2014). However, the extent to which insect herbivores are released from predation may depend on the enemy's traits such as dispersal and competitive ability, and diet breadth (Roland and Taylor, 1997;Cagnolo et al, 2009;Nieminen and van Nouhuys, 2017). Release from top-down control may also depend on the herbivore's diet breadth because existing evidence from insect communities suggests that specialist predators and natural enemies tend to target dietary specialist herbivore prey (Dyer and Gentry, 2002;Stireman and Singer, 2003;Zvereva and Kozlov, 2016), and generalist predators and natural enemies tend to target generalist herbivores (Dyer, 1995;Singer et al, 2014;Zvereva and Kozlov, 2016), although there are exceptions to this pattern.…”

Section: Top-down Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bottom-Up and Top-Down Effects of Forest Fragmentation Differ Between Dietary Generalist and Specialist Caterpillars

Anderson¹,

Dallar²,

Pirtel³

et al. 2019

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Ecological interactions increasingly occur in the context of anthropogenic landscape alteration, such as landscape fragmentation, which engenders numerous changes to abiotic and biotic processes. Theory and empirical evidence suggest that species that are ecologically specialized or positioned at higher trophic levels are most sensitive to the effects of landscape fragmentation, yet the mechanisms underlying this sensitivity remain hypothetical. Here we present an initial test of the hypothesis that landscape fragmentation affects tri-trophic interactions more severely for dietary specialist than for generalist insect herbivores. We specifically tested a bottom-up hypothesis, that fragmentation reduces hostplant food quality to herbivores, with the most pronounced effects for dietary specialists. We also tested a top-down hypothesis, that fragmentation reduces parasitism of caterpillars, with the most pronounced effects on dietary specialists. We studied interactions among trees, caterpillars, and parasitoids in forest fragments (3-1013 ha) in Connecticut, U.S.A. in 2017 and 2018. To address the bottom-up hypothesis, we measured the growth performance of multiple dietary specialist and generalist caterpillar species fed leaves from red maple and witch hazel trees sampled from large or small forest patches. We assessed the top-down hypothesis by quantifying mortality from insect parasitoids of many of the same caterpillar species on these tree species sampled from a range of forest patch sizes. Fragmentation did not reduce herbivore growth performance for either dietary specialist or generalist caterpillars even though it accelerated desiccation rates of leaves of both tree species over the growing season. However, dietary specialization increased herbivore sensitivity to yearly variation in food quality, as the growth efficiency of specialist caterpillars varied between 2017 and 2018, while that of generalist caterpillars did not. As predicted, parasitism rates of dietary specialist caterpillars declined as forest fragment size declined, whereas parasitism of generalists was independent of fragment size. Therefore, interactions involving dietary specialist herbivores were most sensitive to top-down environmental variation. Assuming that dietary specialist caterpillars are primarily attacked by host-specific parasitoids, this Anderson et al. Effects of Forest Fragmentation on Tri-trophic Interactions top-down effect is consistent with the trophic theory of island biogeography, which predicts the sharpest declines of ecologically specialized predators and parasites in small habitat patches.

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“…the action of natural enemies) and bottom-up (e.g. the effects of resource quality and quantity) forces can significantly affect the abundance of seed-feeding beetles (Menezes et al 2010;Tuller et al 2015;Nieminen & van Nouhuys 2017;Wood et al 2017;Sousa-Lopes et al 2020). Although top-down and bottom-up processes are of paramount importance, we still do not know how intraspecific competition can affect the persistence of bruchinae populations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific competition and persistence inAcanthoscelides macrophthalmus(Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae): an experimental analysis in a stage‐structured population

2021

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Intraspecific competition is an ecological process that can affect the structure of populations with important consequences for population persistence. In this study, we investigated (in the larval stage) the effect of intraspecific competition in the seed-feeding beetle Acanthoscelides macrophthalmus on its population structure and persistence. By using Leslie matrices, which are useful to project future population sizes of structured populations, we conducted demographic analysis when competition was (more than one larva per seed) and was not (one larva per seed) present. The hypothesis that competition reduces the finite rate of population growth, the survival of the immatures and the fecundity of females, influencing population persistence, was tested. To understand whether intraspecific competition is a common process in this system, the oviposition pattern was also studied. We found that in the presence of competition, the larvae from the third instar were smaller than those in the absence of competition and, in the presence of competition, fewer larvae reached the adult stage. Larval survival was lower in the presence of competition, particularly from the third larval stage until the pupal stage, and the fecundity of females was also reduced in the presence of competition, which affected the population structure. Although we showed that populations may either grow geometrically or go extinct in absence and presence of competition, respectively, the finite rates of population increase did not differ from 1.0 when compared to the estimated confidence intervals. Therefore, although larval competition may affect the structure of this seed-feeding beetle, there is no clear evidence that this ecological process can negatively affect its persistence. Furthermore, most seeds with eggs had just one egg per seed, which suggests that competition should occur with low frequency under natural conditions.

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The Roles of Trophic Interactions, Competition and Landscape in Determining Metacommunity Structure of a Seed-Feeding Weevil and Its Parasitoids

Cited by 9 publications

References 57 publications

Mesopolobus incultus auct. (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) contains two distinct species: Mesopolobus incultus (Walker, 1834) and Mesopolobus amyntor (Walker, 1845)

Mesopolobus incultus auct. (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) contains two distinct species: Mesopolobus incultus (Walker, 1834) and Mesopolobus amyntor (Walker, 1845)

Bottom-Up and Top-Down Effects of Forest Fragmentation Differ Between Dietary Generalist and Specialist Caterpillars

Intraspecific competition and persistence inAcanthoscelides macrophthalmus(Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae): an experimental analysis in a stage‐structured population

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