Flinte Vivian, Pádua Diego G, Durand Emily M, Hodgin Caitlin, Khattar Gabriel, da Silveira Luiz Felipe L, Fernandes Daniell R R, Sääksjärvi Ilari E, Monteiro Ricardo F, Macedo Margarete V, Mayhew Peter J
Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, C.P. 68020, Rio de Janeiro 21941-590, Brazil.
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Entomologia, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus 69067-375, Brazil.
Insects. 2023 Nov 7;14(11):861. doi: 10.3390/insects14110861.
Understanding how biodiversity varies from place to place is a fundamental goal of ecology and an important tool for halting biodiversity loss. Parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera) are a diverse and functionally important animal group, but spatial variation in their diversity is poorly understood. We survey a community of parasitic wasps (Ichneumonidae: Pimplinae) using Malaise traps up a mountain in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, and relate the catch to biotic and abiotic habitat characteristics. We find high species richness compared with previous similar studies, with abundance, richness, and diversity peaking at low to intermediate elevation. There is a marked change in community composition with elevation. Habitat factors strongly correlated with elevation also strongly predict changes in the pimpline community, including temperature as well as the density of bamboo, lianas, epiphytes, small trees, and herbs. These results identify several possible surrogates of pimpline communities in tropical forests, which could be used as a tool in conservation. They also contribute to the growing evidence for a typical latitudinal gradient in ichneumonid species richness, and suggest that low to medium elevations in tropical regions will sometimes conserve the greatest number of species locally, but to conserve maximal biodiversity, a wider range of elevations should also be targeted.
了解生物多样性如何因地而异是生态学的一个基本目标，也是阻止生物多样性丧失的一项重要工具。寄生蜂（膜翅目）是一个种类多样且功能重要的动物类群，但人们对其多样性的空间变化了解甚少。我们在巴西大西洋雨林的一座山上使用马氏网捕法对一个寄生蜂群落（姬蜂科：赘寄蝇亚科）进行了调查，并将捕获情况与生物和非生物栖息地特征联系起来。与之前的类似研究相比，我们发现物种丰富度很高，丰度、丰富度和多样性在低至中等海拔处达到峰值。群落组成随海拔有显著变化。与海拔高度密切相关的栖息地因素也能有力地预测赘寄蝇亚科群落的变化，包括温度以及竹子、藤本植物、附生植物、小树和草本植物的密度。这些结果确定了热带森林中赘寄蝇亚科群落的几种可能替代指标，可作为保护工作中的一种工具。它们也为姬蜂科物种丰富度存在典型的纬度梯度这一越来越多的证据做出了贡献，并表明热带地区的低至中等海拔有时在当地能保护最多的物种，但为了保护最大的生物多样性，还应将更广泛的海拔范围作为目标。
