Stinson C S A, Brown V K
Department of Pure and Applied Biology, Imperial College, Silwood Park, SL5 7PY, Ascot, Berkshire, UK.
Oecologia. 1983 Jan;56(1):67-69. doi: 10.1007/BF00378218.
The seasonal changes in plant community architecture and its importance to insect herbivores during the ruderal-early stages of an experimental secondary successional gradient are described. The dominant group of insect herbivores, the Auchenorrhyncha (Hemiptera: Homoptera) are considered together with their host plants, the Gramineae. Here plant structure is analysed in terms of the height profile of the vegetation and its complexity of form. Correlations between insect and plant parameters indicate that the number of different types of grass structure (a measure of architecture) account for 79% and 86% of the variance in leafhopper species richness and total abundance respectively. It is suggested that plant architecture may influence insect herbivore diversity by providing a templet, principally in terms of resource availability, for insect colonisation.
本文描述了在实验性次生演替梯度的杂草丛生早期阶段，植物群落结构的季节性变化及其对食草昆虫的重要性。主要的食草昆虫类群——叶蝉（半翅目：同翅亚目）与其寄主植物禾本科植物一同被研究。这里从植被的高度分布及其形态复杂性方面分析了植物结构。昆虫与植物参数之间的相关性表明，不同类型禾本科植物结构的数量（一种结构度量）分别解释了叶蝉物种丰富度和总丰度变异的79%和86%。研究表明，植物结构可能主要通过提供一个资源可利用性的模板来影响食草昆虫的多样性，从而促进昆虫的定殖。
