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Changes in leaf chlorophyll content associated with flowering and its role in the diversity of phytophagous insects in a tree species from a semiarid Caatinga
Phytophagous insects choose their feeding resources according to their own requirements, but their feeding preferences in the semiarid Caatinga have rarely been studied. Flowering trees leads to a greater diversity of flower visitors and their predators in the host plant, but little is known about w...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6055590/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30042875 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5059 |
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author | Sousa-Souto, Leandro Bocchiglieri, Adriana Dias, Douglas de M. Ferreira, Anthony S. Filho, José P. de L. |
author_facet | Sousa-Souto, Leandro Bocchiglieri, Adriana Dias, Douglas de M. Ferreira, Anthony S. Filho, José P. de L. |
author_sort | Sousa-Souto, Leandro |
collection | PubMed |
description | Phytophagous insects choose their feeding resources according to their own requirements, but their feeding preferences in the semiarid Caatinga have rarely been studied. Flowering trees leads to a greater diversity of flower visitors and their predators in the host plant, but little is known about why the diversity of phytophagous insects not associated with flowers is also increased. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diversity of sap-sucking, wood-boring and leaf-chewing insects associated with leaf chlorophyll content in flowering and non-flowering plants of Poincianella pyramidalis, an endemic tree of Caatinga. We used a leaf chlorophyll index (LCI) as a surrogate for resource quality, and an entomological umbrella to collect phytophagous insects. We show that trees which bloomed demonstrated higher chlorophyll content, greater abundance and a significant difference in the composition of phytophagous insect species when compared to non-flowering trees (p < 0.05). The results suggest that not only the presence of flowers themselves, but also the higher nutritional quality of leaf tissue, can explain the differences in species diversity and abundance of phytophagous insects. Exceptional flowering trees in the Caatinga area studied may thus act as spots of high quality resources, favouring changes in the diversity of insects in this environment. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6055590 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-60555902018-07-24 Changes in leaf chlorophyll content associated with flowering and its role in the diversity of phytophagous insects in a tree species from a semiarid Caatinga Sousa-Souto, Leandro Bocchiglieri, Adriana Dias, Douglas de M. Ferreira, Anthony S. Filho, José P. de L. PeerJ Biodiversity Phytophagous insects choose their feeding resources according to their own requirements, but their feeding preferences in the semiarid Caatinga have rarely been studied. Flowering trees leads to a greater diversity of flower visitors and their predators in the host plant, but little is known about why the diversity of phytophagous insects not associated with flowers is also increased. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diversity of sap-sucking, wood-boring and leaf-chewing insects associated with leaf chlorophyll content in flowering and non-flowering plants of Poincianella pyramidalis, an endemic tree of Caatinga. We used a leaf chlorophyll index (LCI) as a surrogate for resource quality, and an entomological umbrella to collect phytophagous insects. We show that trees which bloomed demonstrated higher chlorophyll content, greater abundance and a significant difference in the composition of phytophagous insect species when compared to non-flowering trees (p < 0.05). The results suggest that not only the presence of flowers themselves, but also the higher nutritional quality of leaf tissue, can explain the differences in species diversity and abundance of phytophagous insects. Exceptional flowering trees in the Caatinga area studied may thus act as spots of high quality resources, favouring changes in the diversity of insects in this environment. PeerJ Inc. 2018-06-29 /pmc/articles/PMC6055590/ /pubmed/30042875 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5059 Text en ©2018 Sousa-Souto et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
spellingShingle | Biodiversity Sousa-Souto, Leandro Bocchiglieri, Adriana Dias, Douglas de M. Ferreira, Anthony S. Filho, José P. de L. Changes in leaf chlorophyll content associated with flowering and its role in the diversity of phytophagous insects in a tree species from a semiarid Caatinga |
title | Changes in leaf chlorophyll content associated with flowering and its role in the diversity of phytophagous insects in a tree species from a semiarid Caatinga |
title_full | Changes in leaf chlorophyll content associated with flowering and its role in the diversity of phytophagous insects in a tree species from a semiarid Caatinga |
title_fullStr | Changes in leaf chlorophyll content associated with flowering and its role in the diversity of phytophagous insects in a tree species from a semiarid Caatinga |
title_full_unstemmed | Changes in leaf chlorophyll content associated with flowering and its role in the diversity of phytophagous insects in a tree species from a semiarid Caatinga |
title_short | Changes in leaf chlorophyll content associated with flowering and its role in the diversity of phytophagous insects in a tree species from a semiarid Caatinga |
title_sort | changes in leaf chlorophyll content associated with flowering and its role in the diversity of phytophagous insects in a tree species from a semiarid caatinga |
topic | Biodiversity |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6055590/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30042875 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5059 |
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