Manoj K, Rajesh T P, Prashanth Ballullaya U, Meharabi K M, Shibil V K, Rajmohana K, Sinu Palatty Allesh
Department of Animal Science, Central University of Kerala, Padannakad PO 671?314, Kasaragod, Kerala, India (
Zoological Survey of India, M Block, New Alipore PO, Kolkata 700053, West Bengal, India (
Environ Entomol. 2017 Jun 1;46(3):685-692. doi: 10.1093/ee/nvx080.
Platygastridae is the third largest family of parasitic Hymenoptera in the world. It includes important egg and larval parasitoids of insects and spiders. Therefore, Platygastridae is functionally important in maintaining the stability of tropical rainforests and agroecosystems. Although the diversity of Platygastridae is relatively well-known in agroecosystems, we know little about their diversity in tropical rainforests, and particularly about that of the leaf litter layer. Here, we address the importance of monitoring Platygastridae in tropical rainforests, using data from the relic primary forests of the sacred groves of the Western Ghats. First, we demonstrate that pitfall traps allow us to catch a wide array of representative diversity of Platygastridae of the tropical rainforests, and we establish an efficient collection method to study Platygastridae of leaf litter layer. Second, we demonstrate that the community structure and composition of Platygastridae of the leaf litter layer is different from that seen in the understory of the forests. This indirectly informs us that the Malaise traps capture only a minor subset of the species active in the rainforests. Third, we find that the dry and wet seasons captured dissimilar community of Platygastridae, suggesting that the season might alter the potential host species or host stages. We conclude that monitoring parasitic Hymenoptera in the leaf litter layer of tropical rainforests can provide fresh insights on the species distribution of both the parasitoids and their hosts, and allows us to examine the current state of the tropical rainforests from a functional point of view.
广腹细蜂科是世界上第三大寄生性膜翅目昆虫家族。它包含昆虫和蜘蛛重要的卵及幼虫寄生蜂。因此，广腹细蜂科对于维持热带雨林和农业生态系统的稳定性具有重要作用。尽管广腹细蜂科在农业生态系统中的多样性相对为人熟知，但我们对它们在热带雨林中的多样性，尤其是落叶层中的多样性了解甚少。在此，我们利用西高止山脉神圣树林中残存的原始森林的数据，阐述了监测热带雨林中广腹细蜂科的重要性。首先，我们证明陷阱诱捕器能让我们捕获热带雨林中广腹细蜂科具有广泛代表性的多样物种，并且我们建立了一种有效的收集方法来研究落叶层中的广腹细蜂科。其次，我们证明落叶层中广腹细蜂科的群落结构和组成与森林林下植被中所见的不同。这间接告诉我们，马氏网仅捕获了热带雨林中活跃物种的一小部分。第三，我们发现干湿季节捕获的广腹细蜂科群落不同，这表明季节可能会改变潜在宿主物种或宿主发育阶段。我们得出结论，监测热带雨林落叶层中的寄生性膜翅目昆虫可以为寄生蜂及其宿主的物种分布提供新的见解，并使我们能够从功能角度审视热带雨林的现状。
