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Superhost Plants Alter the Structure of Plant–Galling Insect Networks in Neotropical Savannas

Host plants may harbor a variable number of galling insect species, with some species being able to harbor a high diversity of these insects, being therefore called superhost plants. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the occurrence of superhost plant species of genus Qualea (Vochys...

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Autores principales: de Araújo, Walter Santos, Moreira, Leuzeny Teixeira, Falcão, Luiz Alberto Dolabela, Borges, Magno Augusto Zazá, Fagundes, Marcílio, de Faria, Maurício Lopes, Guilherme, Frederico Augusto Guimarães
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6843997/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31554312
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants8100369
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author de Araújo, Walter Santos
Moreira, Leuzeny Teixeira
Falcão, Luiz Alberto Dolabela
Borges, Magno Augusto Zazá
Fagundes, Marcílio
de Faria, Maurício Lopes
Guilherme, Frederico Augusto Guimarães
author_facet de Araújo, Walter Santos
Moreira, Leuzeny Teixeira
Falcão, Luiz Alberto Dolabela
Borges, Magno Augusto Zazá
Fagundes, Marcílio
de Faria, Maurício Lopes
Guilherme, Frederico Augusto Guimarães
author_sort de Araújo, Walter Santos
collection PubMed
description Host plants may harbor a variable number of galling insect species, with some species being able to harbor a high diversity of these insects, being therefore called superhost plants. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the occurrence of superhost plant species of genus Qualea (Vochysiaceae) affects the structure of plant–galling insect ecological networks in Brazilian Cerrado. We sampled a total of 1882 plants grouped in 131 species and 43 families, of which 64 species and 31 families of host plants hosted 112 galling insect species. Our results showed that occurrence of superhosts of genus Qualea increased the linkage density of plant species, number of observed interactions, and the size of plant–galling insect networks and negatively affected the network connectance (but had no effect on the residual connectance). Although the occurrence of Qualea species did not affect the plant species richness, these superhosts increased the species richness and the number of interactions of galling insects. Our study represents a step forward in relation to previous studies that investigated the effects of plant diversity on the plant–insect networks, showing that few superhost plant species alter the structure of plant–herbivore networks, even without having a significant effect on plant diversity.
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spelling pubmed-68439972019-11-18 Superhost Plants Alter the Structure of Plant–Galling Insect Networks in Neotropical Savannas de Araújo, Walter Santos Moreira, Leuzeny Teixeira Falcão, Luiz Alberto Dolabela Borges, Magno Augusto Zazá Fagundes, Marcílio de Faria, Maurício Lopes Guilherme, Frederico Augusto Guimarães Plants (Basel) Article Host plants may harbor a variable number of galling insect species, with some species being able to harbor a high diversity of these insects, being therefore called superhost plants. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the occurrence of superhost plant species of genus Qualea (Vochysiaceae) affects the structure of plant–galling insect ecological networks in Brazilian Cerrado. We sampled a total of 1882 plants grouped in 131 species and 43 families, of which 64 species and 31 families of host plants hosted 112 galling insect species. Our results showed that occurrence of superhosts of genus Qualea increased the linkage density of plant species, number of observed interactions, and the size of plant–galling insect networks and negatively affected the network connectance (but had no effect on the residual connectance). Although the occurrence of Qualea species did not affect the plant species richness, these superhosts increased the species richness and the number of interactions of galling insects. Our study represents a step forward in relation to previous studies that investigated the effects of plant diversity on the plant–insect networks, showing that few superhost plant species alter the structure of plant–herbivore networks, even without having a significant effect on plant diversity. MDPI 2019-09-24 /pmc/articles/PMC6843997/ /pubmed/31554312 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants8100369 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
de Araújo, Walter Santos
Moreira, Leuzeny Teixeira
Falcão, Luiz Alberto Dolabela
Borges, Magno Augusto Zazá
Fagundes, Marcílio
de Faria, Maurício Lopes
Guilherme, Frederico Augusto Guimarães
Superhost Plants Alter the Structure of Plant–Galling Insect Networks in Neotropical Savannas
title Superhost Plants Alter the Structure of Plant–Galling Insect Networks in Neotropical Savannas
title_full Superhost Plants Alter the Structure of Plant–Galling Insect Networks in Neotropical Savannas
title_fullStr Superhost Plants Alter the Structure of Plant–Galling Insect Networks in Neotropical Savannas
title_full_unstemmed Superhost Plants Alter the Structure of Plant–Galling Insect Networks in Neotropical Savannas
title_short Superhost Plants Alter the Structure of Plant–Galling Insect Networks in Neotropical Savannas
title_sort superhost plants alter the structure of plant–galling insect networks in neotropical savannas
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6843997/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31554312
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants8100369
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