Coelho M S, Belmiro M S, Santos J C, Fernandes G W
Departamento de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
Braz J Biol. 2012 Aug;72(3):453-7. doi: 10.1590/s1519-69842012000300006.
Our goal was to identify herbivory patterns from two insect guilds associated with Cnidoscolus quercifolius in a tropical deciduous forest in northeastern Brazil. We sampled four different habitats: (1) forest edge, (2) mesic (near to the perennial water source), (3) forest interior and (4) rupestrian fields. Habitat edge had lower leaf damage than rupestrian, mesic and forest interior habitats. Nevertheless, abundance of galls at the edge habitat was higher than at mesic, forest interior and/or rupestrian habitats. There was no difference in gall mortality by natural enemies among the four habitats sampled, demonstrating the absence of any influence of top-down controls related to abundance of galls. Trophic relationships were not related to the patterns of distribution among habitats of two insect herbivorous guilds associated with C. quercifolius. Our results demonstrated that environmental heterogeneity of dry forests can significantly alter important ecological interactions and experimental studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms responsible for differences in herbivory among habitats.
我们的目标是在巴西东北部的一片热带落叶林中，确定与栎叶刺萼龙葵相关的两个昆虫类群的食草模式。我们对四种不同的栖息地进行了采样：（1）林缘，（2）中生（靠近常年水源），（3）森林内部和（4）岩生旷野。林缘栖息地的叶片损伤程度低于岩生、中生和森林内部栖息地。然而，边缘栖息地的虫瘿数量高于中生、森林内部和/或岩生栖息地。在采样的四个栖息地中，天敌造成的虫瘿死亡率没有差异，这表明自上而下的控制对虫瘿数量没有任何影响。营养关系与与栎叶刺萼龙葵相关的两个昆虫食草类群在栖息地之间的分布模式无关。我们的结果表明，干旱森林的环境异质性会显著改变重要的生态相互作用，需要进行实验研究以更好地理解导致不同栖息地食草差异的机制。
