Aim: Insects feeding on seeds and fruits represent interesting study systems, potentially able to lower the fitness of their host plants. In addition to true seed eaters, a suite of insects feed on the fleshy parts of fruits. We examined the likelihood of community convergence in whole insect assemblages attacking seeds/fruits in three tropical rain forests.Location: Three ForestGEO permanent forest plots within different biogeographical regions: Barro Colorado Island (Panama), Khao Chong (Thailand) and Wanang (Papua New Guinea). Methods:We surveyed 1,186 plant species and reared 1.1 ton of seeds/fruits that yielded 80,600 insects representing at least 1,678 species. We assigned seeds/fruits to predation syndromes on the basis of plant traits relevant to insects, seed/fruit appearance and mesocarp thickness. Results:We observed large differences in insect faunal composition, species richness and guild structure between our three study sites. We hypothesize that the high species richness of insect feeding on seeds/fruits in Panama may result from a conjunction of low plant species richness and high availability of dry fruits. Insect assemblages were weakly influenced by seed predation syndromes, both at the local and regional scale, and the effect of host phylogeny varied also among sites. At the driest site (Panama), the probability of seeds of a plant species being attacked depended more on seed availability than on the measured seed traits of that plant species. However, when seeds were attacked, plant traits shaping insect assemblages were difficult to identify and not related to seed availability. Main conclusions:We observed only weak evidence of community convergence at the intercontinental scale among these assemblages. Our study suggests that seed eaters may be most commonly associated with dry fruits at relatively dry tropical sites where fleshy fruits may be less prevalent. K E Y W O R D Sconvergence, guild structure, pulp eater, seed predator, seed rain, seed syndrome, species richness

The post‐hibernating adults of the apple blossom weevil, Anthonomus pomorum (L.), show preferences for certain cultivars in mixed apple tree orchards. The degree of infestation of various cultivars was positively correlated with the density of flower buds at a comparable phenological stage, but the numbers of collected beetles were not linearly proportional to the bud density of different cultivars. Hence other possible factors, namely chemical ones, were investigated. Chromatographic analysis of apple tree bud emanations showed that volatiles from two different apple cultivars that show a different attractiveness to the beetles, differed in chemical composition. Several less volatile components of the bud emanation bouquet elicited antennographic responses in both male and female antennae. Four terpene hydrocarbons, namely 3‐carene, perillene, caryophyllene and (E,E)‐α‐farnesene, were identified among the components that produced distinct electrophysiological responses in the antennae. These findings support a hypothesis that the adult weevils use chemical cues for olfactory discrimination during host‐searching behaviour.