Interactions of gall-forming species at different plant spatial scales

Abstract

Interspecific competition has been intensely studied as an organizing force in insect herbivore communities that can be mediated by changes in resource availability. We analyzed patterns of interspecific association of three species of gall-forming insects at shoot length class and shrub levels for Bauhinia brevipes through a null model program. Results show that shoots galled by three species were distributed independently among shoot length classes over 3-years, hence, no evidence of competition for shoots was found. Nevertheless, at the plant level our results suggest that there was a positive association. We found no evidence of any reciprocal negative effect because the density of species did not differ among shoot length classes. We suggest that this lack of pattern was probably due to: (a) host-plant resistance mediating interactions; (b) higher abundance of plant resource available, or (c) free-feeding herbivores mediating interactions by manipulating the resources used by gall-forming species.

Galling inducing insects associated with a tropical shrub: The role of resource concentration and species interactions

“…The role of competition in the organization of herbivorous insect communities is one of the topics most discussed by ecologists (Reitz and Trumble 2002;Kaplan and Denno 2007). Recently, some studies have shown that competition may affect the community organization of sedentary herbivores such as leaf-mining and gall-forming insects (Kaplan and Denno 2007;Tack et al 2009;Santos and Fernandes 2010;Cornelissen et al 2013). When experimental manipulations are not possible, comparing observed patterns of co-occurrence with patterns that may occur at random is a conventional technique for interspecific competition studies (Cornelissen and Stiling 2008;Morin et al 2011).…”

Temporal resource partitioning and stochastic colonization explain the co‐occurrence of gall‐inducing insects in the super‐host plant Copaifera langsdorffii Desf. (Fabaceae)

“…Super-host plants are keystone resources and their presence increases the local richness of gall-inducing insects (Veldtman & McGeoch 2003;Costa et al 2010;Ara ujo et al 2013Ara ujo et al , 2014Ara ujo et al , 2020. Second, null models are used to infer the role of competition in determining the structure of gall-inducing communities in superhost plants (Santos & Fernandes 2010). Competition for optimal oviposition sites in the super-host might be the key mechanism generating the pattern in gallinducing species co-occurrence (Cornelissen et al 2013;Fagundes et al 2018Fagundes et al , 2020Ramos et al 2019).…”

“…2013, 2014, 2020). Second, null models are used to infer the role of competition in determining the structure of gall‐inducing communities in super‐host plants (Santos & Fernandes 2010). Competition for optimal oviposition sites in the super‐host might be the key mechanism generating the pattern in gall‐inducing species co‐occurrence (Cornelissen et al .…”