Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T02:40:24.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Low host specificity in species-rich assemblages of xylem- and phloem-feeding herbivores (Auchenorrhyncha) in a New Guinea lowland rain forest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2013

Francesca F. Dem ,
Alan J.A. Stewart ,
Amos Gibson ,
George D. Weiblen  and
Vojtech Novotny
Francesca F. Dem*
Affiliation:
New Guinea Binatang Research Centre, PO Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea Environmental Futures Centre, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Qld 4111, Australia
Alan J.A. Stewart
Affiliation:
School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK
Amos Gibson
Affiliation:
New Guinea Binatang Research Centre, PO Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea
George D. Weiblen
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Sciences, University of Minnesota, 250 Biological Sciences Centre, 1445 Gortner Avenue, St Paul, MN 55108–1095, USA
Vojtech Novotny
Affiliation:
New Guinea Binatang Research Centre, PO Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea Biology Centre, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

We documented one of the most species-rich assemblages of tropical rain-forest Auchenorrhyncha, comprising 402 phloem- and xylem-feeding species, by sampling adults from forest vegetation. Further, we reared 106 species from larvae sampled on 14 plant species. Both xylem- and phloem-feeding guilds exhibited wide host-plant ranges, as 74% of species fed on more than one plant family. In comparison, using data extracted from the temperate-zone literature, phloem-feeders exhibited lower host specificity in Papua New Guinea than in Germany, because in Papua New Guinea they were dominated by generalist Fulgoroidea while in Germany by specialist Membracoidea. The similarity of Auchenorrhyncha assemblages from different plant species was unrelated to the phylogenetic distance between their hosts. Host specificity, abundance and species composition of Auchenorrhyncha assemblages were unrelated to the optimum of their host plant species on succession gradient from secondary to primary forest. Higher host specificity did not lead to greater species richness in Auchenorrhyncha assemblages feeding on different plant species, but the number of species feeding on a particular plant species was a strong predictor of the Auchenorrhyncha abundance on that plant. These patterns suggest that Auchenorrhyncha assemblages on these plant species are not saturated with species and determined by division of limited resources among competitors, but instead are dependent on the number of colonizers from the regional species pool.

Keywords

food webHemipterahost specializationlatitudinal diversity gradientleafhoppersplanthoppers
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 29 , Issue 6 , November 2013 , pp. 467 - 476
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

BASSET, Y., CIZEK, L., CUÉNOUD, P., DIDHAM, R. K., GUILHAUMON, F., MISSA, O., NOVOTNY, N., ØDEGAARD, F., ROSLIN, T., SCHMIDL, J., TISHECHKIN, A. K., WINCHESTER, N. N., ABERLENCE, H.-P., BAIL, J., BARRIOS, H., BRIDLE, J. R., CASTAÑO-MENESES, G., CORBARA, B., CURLETTI, G., DEBAKER, D., DELABIE, J. H. C., DEJEAN, A., FAGAN, L. L., FLOREN, A., KITCHING, R. L., MEDIANERO, F., MILLER, S. E., GAMA DE. OLIVEIRA, E., ORIVEL, J., POLLET, M., RIBEIRO, S. P., ROISIN, Y., ROUBIK, D. W., SORENSEN, L. & LEPONCE, M. 2012. Arthropod diversity in a tropical forest. Science 338:1481–1484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CALEY, M. J. & SCHLUTER, D. 1997. The relationship between local and regional diversity. Ecology 78:70–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CASSON, D. S. & HODKINSON, I. D. 1991. The Hemiptera (Insecta) communities of tropical rain forest in Sulawesi. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 102:253–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DENNO, R. F. & RODERICK, G. K. 1990. Population biology of planthoppers. Annual Review of Entomology 35:489–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DYER, L. A., SINGER, M. S., LILL, J. T., STIREMAN, J. O., GENTRY, G. L., MARQUIS, R. J., RICKLEFS, R. E., GREENEY, H. F., WAGNER, D. L., MORAIS, H. C., DINIZ, I. R., KURSAR, T. A. & COLEY, P. D. 2007. Host specificity of Lepidoptera in tropical and temperate forests. Nature 448:696–699.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
FEENY, P. 1976. Plant apparency and chemical defense. Pp. 1–40 in Wallace, J. W. & Mansell, R. S. (eds.). Recent advances in phytochemistry. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
HAMILTON, K. G. A. 1983. Introduced and native leafhoppers common to the old and new worlds (Rhynchota: Homoptera: Cicadellidae). Canadian Entomology 115:473–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HARRISON, S. & CORNELL, H. 2008. Toward a better understanding of the regional causes of local community richness. Ecology Letters 11:969–979.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HODKINSON, I. D. & CASSON, D. S. 2000. Patterns within patterns: abundance-size relationships within the Hemiptera of tropical rain forest or why phylogeny matters. Oikes 88:509–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LEPS, J., NOVOTNY, V. & BASSET, Y. 2001. Habitat and successional status of plants in relation to the communities of their leaf-chewing herbivores in Papua New Guinea. Journal of Ecology 89:186–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MCALPINE, J. R., KEIGH, R. & FALLS, R. 1983. Climate of Papua New Guinea. CSIRO and Australian National University Press, Canberra. 200 pp.Google Scholar
MEDLER, J. T. 1989. New Guinea Flatidae (Homoptera): species collected on economic and other plants, with descriptions of new species. Honolulu, Bishop Museum, Honolulu. 79 pp.Google Scholar
NAULT, L. R. & AMMAR, E. D. 1989. Leafhopper and planthopper transmission of plant viruses. Annual Review of Entomology 34:503–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NICKEL, H. & REMANE, R. 2002. Check list of the planthoppers and leafhoppers of Germany, with notes on food plants, diet width, life cycles, geographical range and conservation status (Hemiptera, Fulgoromorpha and Cicadomorpha). Beiträge zur Zikadenkunde 5:27–64.Google Scholar
NOVOTNY, V. 1993. Spatial and temporal components of species diversity in Auchenorrhyncha (Hemiptera) communities of Indochinese montane rain forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 9:93–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NOVOTNY, V. 1994a. Association of polyphagy in leafhoppers (Auchenorrhyncha, Hemiptera) with unpredictable environments. Oikos 70:223–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NOVOTNY, V. 1994b. Relation between temporal persistence of host plants and wing length in leafhoppers (Auchenorrhyncha, Hemiptera). Ecological Entomology 19:168–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NOVOTNY, V. & BASSET, Y. 1998. Seasonality of sap-sucking insects (Auchenorrhyncha, Hemiptera) feeding on Ficus (Moraceae) in a lowland rain forest in New Guinea. Oecologia 115:514–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NOVOTNY, V. & BASSET, Y. 2005. Host specificity of insect herbivores in tropical forests. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 272:1083–1090.Google ScholarPubMed
NOVOTNY, V. & WILSON, M. R. 1997. Why are there no small species among xylem-sucking insects? Evolutionary Ecology 11:419–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NOVOTNY, V., BASSET, Y., MILLER, S. E., DRODZ, P. & CIZEK, L. 2002. Host specialization of leaf-chewing insects in a New Guinea rainforest. Journal of Animal Ecology 71:400–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NOVOTNY, V., MILLER, S. E., LEPS, J., BITO, D., JANDA, M., HULCR, J., BASSET, Y., DAMAS, K. & WEIBLEN, G. D. 2004. No tree an island: the plant–caterpillar food web of secondary rainforest in New Guinea. Ecology Letters 7:1090–1100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NOVOTNY, V., DRODZ, P., MILLER, S. E., KULFAN, M., JANDA, M., BASSET, Y. & WEIBLEN, G. D. 2006. Why are there so many species of herbivorous insects in tropical rainforests? Science 313:1115–1118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
NOVOTNY, V., MILLER, S. E., BAJE, L., BALAGAWI, S., BASSET, Y., CIZEK, L., CRAFT, J. K., DEM, F., DREW, R. A. I., HULCR, J., LEPS, J., LEWIS, O. T., POKON, R., STEWART, A. J. A. & WEIBLEN, G. D. 2010. Guild-specific patterns of species richness and host specialization in plant–herbivore food webs from a tropical forest. Journal of Animal Ecology 79:1193–1203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
NOVOTNY, V., MILLER, S. E., HRCEK, J., BAJE, L., BASSET, Y., LEWIS, O. T., STEWART, A. J. A. & WEIBLEN, G. D. 2012. Insects on plants: explaining the paradox of low diversity within specialist herbivore guilds. American Naturalist 179:351–362.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
RAVEN, J. A. 1983. Phytophages of xylem and phloem: a comparison of animal and plant sap feeders. Advances in Ecological Research 13:135–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RICKLEFS, R. E. 2004. A comprehensive framework for global patterns in biodiversity. Ecology Letters 7:1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SCHEMSKE, D., MITTELBACH, G. G., CORNELL, H. V., SOBEL, J. M. & ROY, K. 2009. Is there a latitudinal gradient in the importance of biotic interactions? Annual Review in Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 40:245–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SIMBERLOFF, D. & DAYAN, T. 1991. The guild concept and the structure of ecological communities. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 22:115–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
STAFFORD, C. A., WALKER, G. P. & ULLMAN, D. E. 2012. Hitching a ride. Vector feeding and virus transmission. Communicative and Integrative Biology 5:43–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
STORK, N. E. 1991. The composition of the arthropod fauna of Bornean lowland rain forest trees. Journal of Tropical Ecology 7:161–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SUTTON, S. L., ASH, C. P. J. & GRUNDY, A. 1983. The vertical distribution of flying insects in lowland rain-forests of Panama, Papua New Guinea and Brunei. Zoological Journal of Linnean Society 78:287–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WILSON, M. R. & NAULT, L. R. 1986. Proceedings of 2nd International Workshop on Leafhoppers and Planthoppers of Economic Importance. Brigham Young University, Provo. 368 pp.Google Scholar
WILSON, S. W. & O'BRIEN, L. B. 1987. A survey of planthopper pests of economically important plants (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea). Pp. 343–360 in Wilson, M. R. & Nault, L. R. (eds.). Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Leafhoppers and Planthoppers of Economic Importance. Commonwealth Institute of Entomology, London.Google Scholar
WITT, A. R. B. & EDWARDS, P. B. 2000. Biology, distribution and host range of Zygina sp (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) a potential biological control agent for Asparagus asparagoides. Biological Control 18:101–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WOLDA, H. 1988. Insect seasonality: why? Annual Review of Ecological Systems 19:1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
YOUNG, D. A. 1968. Taxonomic study of the Cicadellinae (Homoptera: Cicadellinae). Part 1, Proconiini. Bulletin of the U. S. National Museum 261:1–28.Google Scholar