Araújo Walter S
Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goás, Campus Samambaia, 74001-970 Goiânia, Goiás, CP 131 Brazil.
Rev Biol Trop. 2011 Dec;59(4):1599-607. doi: 10.15517/rbt.v59i4.3423.
Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the diversity of gall-midge insects (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), some of them taking into account plant diversity. This study aims to test the importance of size, age and composition of host plant taxa in the diversity of Cecidomyiidae. For this we used inventories data on the diversity of galling and host plants in Brazil. We found that Asterales, Myrtales and Malpighiales, were the most important orders, with 34, 33 and 25, gall morphotypes, respectively. The most representative host families were Asteraceae (34 morphotypes), Myrtaceae (23) and Fabaceae (22). In general, the order size and the plant family were good predictors of the galling diversity, but not the taxon age. The most diverse host genera for gall-midges were Mikania, Eugenia and Styrax, with 15, 13 and nine galler species, respectively. The size of plant genera showed no significant relationship with the richness of Cecidomyiidae, contrary to the prediction of the plant taxon size hypothesis. The plant genera with the greatest diversity of galling insects are not necessarily those with the greatest number of species. These results indicate that some plant taxa have a high intrinsic richness of galling insects, suggesting that the plant species composition may be equally or more important for the diversity of gall-midges than the size or age of the host taxon.
人们已经提出了许多假说，以解释瘿蚊昆虫（双翅目：瘿蚊科）的多样性，其中一些假说考虑到了植物多样性。本研究旨在检验寄主植物类群的大小、年龄和组成对瘿蚊科多样性的重要性。为此，我们使用了巴西瘿蚊和寄主植物多样性的清查数据。我们发现，菊目、桃金娘目和金虎尾目是最重要的目，分别有34、33和25种瘿蚊形态类型。最具代表性的寄主科是菊科（34种形态类型）、桃金娘科（23种）和豆科（22种）。一般来说，目大小和植物科是瘿蚊多样性的良好预测指标，但不是分类单元年龄。瘿蚊最多样化的寄主属是薇甘菊属、番樱桃属和安息香属，分别有15、13和9种瘿蚊物种。与植物分类单元大小假说的预测相反，植物属的大小与瘿蚊科的丰富度没有显著关系。具有最多样化瘿蚊昆虫的植物属不一定是物种数量最多的属。这些结果表明，一些植物类群具有较高的瘿蚊昆虫固有丰富度，这表明植物物种组成对瘿蚊多样性的重要性可能与寄主分类单元的大小或年龄相当或更重要。
