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Gall-inducing insects from Atlantic Forest of Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil

Insetos indutores de galhas da Floresta Atlântica de Pernambuco, Nordeste do Brasil

Abstracts

An inventory of gall inducing insects and their host plants in the Atlantic forest of Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil is presented. Samples of galls and their host plants were taken in six fragments of Atlantic forest. One hundred thirty-six different morphotypes of insect galls on 79 host plant species belonging to 35 plant families and 53 genera were recorded. The host plant families most attacked by galling insects were: Lecythidaceae, Myrtaceae, and Nyctaginaceae. The most frequent galling taxa were Diptera of the Cecidomyiidae family (95%), followed by Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Galls occurred most frequently on leaves and stems, had globoid and elliptical shapes, green color and absence of trichomes on the external walls. The data indicate an intermediary richness of gall inducing insects when compared to other Brazilian Atlantic forests.

biodiversity; Cecidomyiidae; host plants; insect galls; herbivory


Um inventário de insetos galhadores e suas plantas hospedeiras foi realizado para a Mata Atlântica de Pernambuco, Nordeste do Brasil. As galhas e suas plantas hospedeiras foram amostradas em seis fragmentos de Mata Atlântica. Cento e trinta e seis diferentes morfotipos de galhas de insetos em 79 espécies de plantas hospedeiras pertencentes a 35 famílias de plantas e 53 gêneros foram registrados. As famílias de plantas mais atacadas por insetos galhadores foram: Lecythidaceae, Myrtaceae e Nyctaginaceae. O grupo mais frequente de galhador foi Diptera da família Cecidomyiidae (95%), seguido por Lepidoptera e Coleoptera. Galhas ocorreram mais frequentemente sobre as folhas e caules, possuíam um formato globoso e formas elípticas, de cor verde e ausência de tricomas nas paredes externas. Os dados indicam uma riqueza intermediária de insetos indutores de quando comparado com outras florestas atlânticas brasileiras.

biodiversidade; Cecidomyiidae; plantas hospedeiras; insetos galhadores; herbivoria


INVENTÁRIOS

Gall-inducing insects from Atlantic Forest of Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil

Insetos indutores de galhas da Floresta Atlântica de Pernambuco, Nordeste do Brasil

Jean Carlos SantosI,* * Corresponding author: Jean Carlos Santos, e-mail: jcsantos@inbio.ufu.br ; Jarcilene Silva de Almeida-CortezII; Geraldo Wilson FernandesIII

IInstituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia - UFU, CP 593, CEP 38400-902, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil

IIDepartamento de Botânica, Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - UFPE, Av. Prof. Moraes Rêgo, s/n, CEP 50670-901, Recife, PE, Brazil

IIIEcologia Evolutiva e Biodiversidade, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG, CEP 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

ABSTRACT

An inventory of gall inducing insects and their host plants in the Atlantic forest of Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil is presented. Samples of galls and their host plants were taken in six fragments of Atlantic forest. One hundred thirty-six different morphotypes of insect galls on 79 host plant species belonging to 35 plant families and 53 genera were recorded. The host plant families most attacked by galling insects were: Lecythidaceae, Myrtaceae, and Nyctaginaceae. The most frequent galling taxa were Diptera of the Cecidomyiidae family (95%), followed by Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Galls occurred most frequently on leaves and stems, had globoid and elliptical shapes, green color and absence of trichomes on the external walls. The data indicate an intermediary richness of gall inducing insects when compared to other Brazilian Atlantic forests.

Keywords: biodiversity, Cecidomyiidae, host plants, insect galls, herbivory.

RESUMO

Um inventário de insetos galhadores e suas plantas hospedeiras foi realizado para a Mata Atlântica de Pernambuco, Nordeste do Brasil. As galhas e suas plantas hospedeiras foram amostradas em seis fragmentos de Mata Atlântica. Cento e trinta e seis diferentes morfotipos de galhas de insetos em 79 espécies de plantas hospedeiras pertencentes a 35 famílias de plantas e 53 gêneros foram registrados. As famílias de plantas mais atacadas por insetos galhadores foram: Lecythidaceae, Myrtaceae e Nyctaginaceae. O grupo mais frequente de galhador foi Diptera da família Cecidomyiidae (95%), seguido por Lepidoptera e Coleoptera. Galhas ocorreram mais frequentemente sobre as folhas e caules, possuíam um formato globoso e formas elípticas, de cor verde e ausência de tricomas nas paredes externas. Os dados indicam uma riqueza intermediária de insetos indutores de quando comparado com outras florestas atlânticas brasileiras.

Palavras-chave: biodiversidade, Cecidomyiidae, plantas hospedeiras, insetos galhadores, herbivoria.

Introduction

Gall-inducing insects are a special guild of endophytic and specialist plant herbivores (Shorthouse et al. 2005) with most galling species restricted to one specific host plant (see Carneiro et al. 2009a). This species-specific relationship between galling insects and host plants suggests that these herbivores can be used to test broad ecological concepts (Fernandes & Price 1988, 1991, Price et al. 2004), such as, hypotheses to explain latitudinal and altitudinal patterns (e.g., Fernandes & Price 1988, Carneiro et al. 2005). A study on global richness of gall-inducing insects estimated the existence of 21,000 to 211,000 species (see Espírito-Santo & Fernandes 2007). This inaccuracy is probably due to the lack of more studies throughout the many vegetation types and biomes around the globe.

In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, studies addressing inventories of galling insects have been concentrated in south and southeastern regions of Brazil (e.g. Fernandes et al. 2001, Maia 2005, Dalbem & Mendonça 2006, Fernandes & Negreiros 2006, Mendonça 2007, Moreira et al. 2007, see also the Brazilian Atlantic costal ecosystem called restinga, Maia 2001, Oliveira & Maia 2005, Maia & Oliveira 2010). Up to the present date, only two local studies (see Fernandes et al. 2009, Silva et al. 2011) reported insect gall richness in the northeastern Brazilian Atlantic Forest, an important area of endemism [Pernambuco Center of Endemism (sensu Silva & Casteleti 2003)]. Therefore, we present the inventory of galling insects and their host plants in the Atlantic forest of Pernambuco as an attempt reduce the lack of knowledge of the gall inducer insects in this region.

Materials and Methods

Study area - This study was conducted in six fragments of Atlantic forests in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, specifically in the Reserva Ecológica de Saltinho (city of Tamandaré) (8º 43' 30" S and 35º 10' 40" W), Parque Estadual de Dois Irmãos (city of Recife) (8º 7' 30" S and 34º 52' 30" W), Reserva Ecológica de Carnijó - Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural (RPPN) de Carnijó (city of Moreno) (08º 08' 42" S and 35º 04' 34" W), Reserva Ecológica Mata de Duas Lagoas (city of Cabo de Santo Agostinho) (8º 18' 16" S and 34º 58' 17" W), Refúgio Ecológico Charles Darwin(city of Igarassu) (7º 48' 37" S and 34º 27' 25" W), and Engenho Monjolo (city of Abreu e Lima) (7º 54' 32" S and 34º 57' 25" W). These areas were chosen arbitrarily to cover the maximum of environmental heterogeneity in the Atlantic Forest state of Pernambuco (Figure 1).


Sampling galling insect richness - The Brazilian Atlantic Forest were investigated for galls over a period of seven months from January to September of 2008, once for each area over the sample period. In each site, galling insect richness were sampled by two people following the adapted methodology of random walking (see Julião et al. 2002, Fernandes & Negreiros 2006), where instead of an hour, five hours were spent in each area (total hours of survey = 30 hours). To maximize the sampling of richness, a distance of at least 500 m was established among the sites sampled inside the areas (Fernandes & Price 1988). All plant organs, except root, were investigated, and each gall and host plants (up to 3 m high) found were collected, placed into plastic bags, and then taken to a laboratory for photographic registration and description of the external morphology of the galls. Host plants were identified into morphospecies in the field, and later at the species level in the in the Herbarium Geraldo Mariz of the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE). The classification of species of host plants followed the system proposed by Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III (Angiosperm... 2009), and the authors and scientific host plant names were checked in the Plantminer, a web tool designed to check seed plants species data (Carvalho et al. 2010). Voucher specimens were deposited in a reference collection do Museu de Biodiversidade do Cerrado (MBC) of Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU).

In this study, the gall morphospecies was identified based upon their external morphology in combination with their host plant species, because, in general, 95% species of Cecidomyiidae induce a gall on a specific tissue of a certain plant species (Carneiro et al. 2009a). Therefore, the gall morphotypes were considered as true species (see also Coelho et al. 2009). The use of gall morphotype as surrogate of galling species richness is acceptable both ecologically and taxonomically (see Carneiro et al. 2009a) and it has been used in several studies in different ecosystems (e.g. Price et al. 1998, Cuevas-Reyes et al. 2004, Fernandes & Negreiros 2006, Moreira et al. 2007, Carneiro et al. 2009b, Coelho et al. 2009). Therefore, galls were characterized as reported by Fernandes & Price (1988): host plant species, number of types of galls by host plant, type of host tissue attacked, shape of galls, color of galls, presence or absence of pubescence, and number of chambers in the gall, occurrence on the galled organ: isolated or grouped/coalescent. A list only with the likely inducers of galls was chosen to be showed because many galls were naturally damaged during the study period, without the presence of the inducing larvae, or parasitized.

Results

Altogether 136 morphologically distinct types of insect galls were found in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest of Pernambuco. These galls were found on 79 species of host plants belonging to 35 families and 53 genera (Table 1, Figure 2). The greatest richness of galling insects was found in the Reserva Ecológica de Saltinho (59 morphospecies), followed by Parque Estadual de Dois Irmãos (50 morphospecies), Reserva Particular de Carnijó (46 morphospecies), Reserva Ecológica Mata de Duas Lagoas (17 morphospecies), Refúgio Ecológico Charles Darwin (15 morphospecies), and Engenho Monjolo with 13 morphospecies.


Compiling the results from all areas, the majority of galls induced by insects belonged to the family Cecidomyiidae (94.85%) (Diptera), followed by Lepidoptera (1.47%), and Coleoptera (0.74%), while 2.94% were undetermined. The host plant families with the largest number of galling species were: Lecythidaceae, Myrtaceae, and Nyctaginaceae, with 6.62% (9 morphotypes) each; Burseraceae with 5.88% (8 morphotypes); Clusiaceae, Fabaceae, Lauraceae, Melastomataceae and Polygonaceae with 5.15% (7 morphotypes) each; and Rubiaceae with 4.41% (6 morphotypes) (Table 2). Together these plant families supported approximately 56% (76 morphotypes) of all galls found. The host plant families with the larger number of host plant species were: Myrtaceae with 8.86% (7 species); Polygonaceae with 7.59% (6 species); Melastomataceae with 6.33% (5 species); and Fabaceae, Lauraceae, Rubiaceae with 5.06% (4 species) each (Table 2). Together these plant families supported approximately 38% (30 species) of all host plants found. The genera with the largest number of gall morphotypes were: Guapira (nine), Protium (seven), and Coccoloba, Miconia, Ocotea, and Eschweilera with six morphotypes each. Most galls were induced on leaves (74.26%) and stems (19.85%). The most frequent shape of galls was globoid (29.41%) followed by the elliptical shape (20.59%). Ninety-one percent of galls were glabrous, 66.18% were predominantly green, while 69.12% did not form clusters.

Discussion

This study represented an important contribution to the understanding on the galling insect guild distribution in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest of northeast Brazil. A comparison of present study with that from other areas of Brazilian Atlantic Forests showed the richness of the insect galls in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest of Pernambuco (136 morphospecies) was intermediary. The highest diversity (282 morphospecies) was reported by Mendonça (2007) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and Pampas of south Brazil and Fernandes et al. (2001) that reported on 273 galling species in several areas of Brazilian Atlantic Forest of the southeast Brazil. To Atlantic Forest in northeastern Brazil, Silva et al. (2011) reported 50 morphospecies along a secondary successional gradient, and Fernandes et al. (2009) reported 32 morphospecies in an urban remnant. Mendonça (2007) argues that the result of highest diversity of insect galls is in function of larger plant families which have more galls, such as Asteraceae. This is in agreement with the hypothesis proposed by Fernandes (1992) in which the higher richness of galling insects should be found on the most speciose host families, the plant richness hypothesis. One likely explanation for the low richness of galling insects in comparison to other forests of the southern Brazilian Atlantic Forest is the fact that the Brazilian Atlantic Forest in the north of the São Francisco River (e.g. Pernambuco's forest) have lower species richness of plants species (Tabarelli et al. 2006) in comparison with other Atlantic forests. Other likely explanation is that most of the remaining forests studied are small and have strong changes in floristic composition and structure due to edge effects and fragmentation habitat (see Tabarelli et al. 2005), reducing the availability of host plants for galling insects and, therefore, reducing galling richness too. Otherwise, many factors, e.g. historical factors, could also be important in explaining the results in this study. Unfortunately, the low number of studies does not permit broader generalizations. More sampling of galls at local and regional scales are needed in order to verify the existence of a regional pattern or even to make generalizations on the differences between northern and southern areas of Brazilian Atlantic Forest based on the diversity patterns of galling insects.

With the majority of galls induced by insects belonged to the family Cecidomyiidae (94.85%), the results of this study also reinforce the importance of the family Cecidomyiidae as the major taxonomic group among galling in the Neotropical region, accounting for more than 90% of gall morphotypes (Carneiro et al. 2009a). The composition of the main families of host plants was also distinct from that found in other studies in Atlantic Forest (see Fernandes et al. 2001, Dalbem & Mendonça 2006, Fernandes & Negreiros 2006, Mendonça 2007, Moreira et al. 2007, Santos et al. 2011). For instance, in Brazilian Atlantic Forest remnants of Minas Gerais State the families with more galling were Asteraceae, Myrtaceae, Bignoniaceae and Melastomataceae (Fernandes et al. 2001), and in Atlantic Forest from southern Brazil the families with more galling were Asteraceae, Myrtaceae and Sapindaceae (Mendonça 2007). To other studies in the Atlantic Forest from northeast Brazil, the most important plant families were Melastomataceae followed by Piperaceae in Usina Serra Grande, Alagoas state (Silva et al. 2011) and Burseraceae, Lecythidaceae, Annonaceaea and Melastomataceae in Parque Estadual de Dois Irmãos, Pernambuco state (Fernandes et al. 2009); while in this study Lecythidaceae, Myrtaceae, Nyctaginaceae, and Burseraceae were the families with more galling insects. This could be the consequence of the size of the host plant families in the region. In addition, as pointed out by some authors (e.g., Fernandes 1992, Fernandes & Price 1988), the presence of super-hosts can be an important element to determinate the composition of the community of galling insects. In this study, only Guapira opposita (Vell.) Reitz, Eschweilera ovata (Cambess.) Miers and Protium heptaphyllum (Aubl.) Marchand accounted for approximately 15% (21 morphotypes) of gall morphotypes. Guapira opposita was the host plant with more galling species (nine morphospecies). In other ecosystems, these species also is considered a super-host (Maia 2001, Maia et al. 2008, Maia & Oliveira 2010). Similar case can be found in savannah areas, where the genus Baccharis is a super-host (Fernandes et al. 1996, Espírito-Santo & Fernandes 2007).

In relation to shapes, pubescence, occurrence and plants organ attacked, the result obtained in this study correspond to those found by Fernandes et al. (2001) which shows a similarity in the life of this galling strategies for this type of forest. In this study, the galls were globoid and elliptical, glabrous, predominantly green, with one chamber per gall and that induce galls on leaves and stems. Whereas in Fernandes et al. (2001) the galls were elliptical and spherical, glabrous, predominantly green, with one chamber per gall and that induce galls on leaves and stems.

Acknowledgements

We thank M. .A. A. Carneiro and two anonymous reviewers for comments of this manuscript. We also thank Mr. Gilcean, C. Magalhães, C. Tavares, M. Honorato, A. Ferreira for field work, A. Aguiar (Patriota) for figure design, ICMBio and the support provided by DCR-FACEPE/CNPq (DCR-0087-2.05/06, APQ-0008-2.05/07), FAPEMIG (APQ-01278-08, CRA 465/07, 122/07) and CNPq (47 2811/2006-1, 30 3352/2010-8).

Received 16/05/2011

Revised 16/07/2012

Accepted 20/07/2012

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  • *
    Corresponding author: Jean Carlos Santos, e-mail:
  • Publication Dates

    • Publication in this collection
      08 Nov 2012
    • Date of issue
      Sept 2012

    History

    • Received
      16 May 2011
    • Accepted
      20 July 2012
    • Reviewed
      16 July 2012
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