scholarly journals Vertical Stratification of Insect Species Developing in Water-Filled Tree Holes

2022 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin M. Gossner ◽  
Jana S. Petermann
Keyword(s):  
Model Systems ◽  
Vertical Stratification ◽  
Insect Species ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Vertical Position ◽  
Niche Separation ◽  
Insect Communities ◽  
Biting Midge ◽  
Tree Hole ◽  
Tree Holes

Forest ecosystems have a distinct vertical dimension, but the structuring of communities in this three-dimensional space is not well understood. Water-filled tree holes are natural microcosms structured in metacommunities. Here, we used these microcosms as model systems to analyze how insect communities and the occurrence and abundance of individual species are influenced by biotic and abiotic microhabitat characteristics, the vertical position of the tree hole, and stand-scale habitat availability. We found that both the characteristics of water-filled tree holes and their insect communities differ significantly between canopy and ground level. Individual insect species showed contrasting responses to the vertical position of the tree holes when important environmental factors at the stand and the tree-hole scale were considered. While some species, such as the mosquito Aedes geniculatus and the beetle Prionocyphon serricornis, decreased in abundance with increasing tree-hole height, the biting midge Dasyhelea sp., the non-biting midge Metriocnemus cavicola and the hoverfly Myiatropa florea increased in abundance. Our results suggest that vertical stratification in forests is most likely driven not only by variation in tree-hole microhabitat properties, i.e., niche separation, but also by individual species traits, such as adult dispersal propensity, food preferences and mating behavior of adult stages, and interspecific competition of larval stages. Therefore, communities of insect species developing in tree holes are likely structured by competition–colonization trade-offs predicted by metacommunity theory.

Orchestrated Flowering and Interspecific Facilitation: Key Factors in the Maintenance of the Main Pollinator of Coexisting Threatened Species of Andean Wax Palms (Ceroxylon spp.)

2020 ◽  
Vol 105 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-299
Author(s):  
Javier Carreño-Barrera ◽  
Luis Alberto Núñez-Avellaneda ◽  
Maria José Sanín ◽  
Artur Campos D. Maia
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Status ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Floral Biology ◽  
Fruit Production ◽  
Biological Data ◽  
Fruit Yield ◽  
Insect Species ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Pollination Services ◽  
Flower Visiting

Solitary, dioecious, and mostly endemic to Andean cloud forests, wax palms (Ceroxylon Bonpl. ex DC. spp.) are currently under worrisome conservation status. The establishment of management plans for their dwindling populations rely on detailed biological data, including their reproductive ecology. As in the case of numerous other Neotropical palm taxa, small beetles are assumed to be selective pollinators of wax palms, but their identity and relevance in successful fruit yield were unknown. During three consecutive reproductive seasons we collected data on population phenology and reproductive and floral biology of three syntopic species of wax palms native to the Colombian Andes. We also determined the composition of the associated flower-visiting entomofauna, quantifying the extent of the role of individual species as effective pollinators through standardized value indexes that take into consideration abundance, constancy, and pollen transport efficiency. The studied populations of C. parvifrons (Engel) H. Wendl., C. ventricosum Burret, and C. vogelianum (Engel) H. Wendl. exhibit seasonal reproductive cycles with marked temporal patterns of flower and fruit production. The composition of the associated flower-visiting entomofauna, comprised by ca. 50 morphotypes, was constant across flowering seasons and differed only marginally among species. Nonetheless, a fraction of the insect species associated with pistillate inflorescences actually carried pollen, and calculated pollinator importance indexes demonstrated that one insect species alone, Mystrops rotundula Sharp, accounted for 94%–99% of the effective pollination services for all three species of wax palms. The sequential asynchronous flowering of C. parvifrons, C. ventricosum, and C. vogelianum provides an abundant and constant supply of pollen, pivotal for the maintenance of large populations of their shared pollinators, a cooperative strategy proven effective by high fruit yield rates (up to 79%). Reproductive success might be compromised for all species by the population decline of one of them, as it would tamper with the temporal orchestration of pollen offer.

scholarly journals Estimation of the relative abundance of species in artificial mixtures of insects using low-coverage shotgun metagenomics

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lidia Garrido-Sanz ◽  
Miquel Àngel Senar ◽  
Josep Piñol
Keyword(s):  
Relative Abundance ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Insect Species ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Advanced Degree ◽  
Mixed Species ◽  
Species List ◽  
Shotgun Metagenomics ◽  
Low Coverage

Amplicon metabarcoding is an established technique to analyse the taxonomic composition of communities of organisms using high-throughput DNA sequencing, but there are doubts about its ability to quantify the relative proportions of the species, as opposed to the species list. Here, we bypass the enrichment step and avoid the PCR-bias, by directly sequencing the extracted DNA using shotgun metagenomics. This approach is common practice in prokaryotes, but not in eukaryotes, because of the low number of sequenced genomes of eukaryotic species. We tested the metagenomics approach using insect species whose genome is already sequenced and assembled to an advanced degree. We shotgun-sequenced, at low-coverage, 18 species of insects in 22 single-species and 6 mixed-species libraries and mapped the reads against 110 reference genomes of insects. We used the single-species libraries to calibrate the process of assignation of reads to species and the libraries created from species mixtures to evaluate the ability of the method to quantify the relative species abundance. Our results showed that the shotgun metagenomic method is easily able to set apart closely-related insect species, like four species of Drosophila included in the artificial libraries. However, to avoid the counting of rare misclassified reads in samples, it was necessary to use a rather stringent detection limit of 0.001, so species with a lower relative abundance are ignored. We also identified that approximately half the raw reads were informative for taxonomic purposes. Finally, using the mixed-species libraries, we showed that it was feasible to quantify with confidence the relative abundance of individual species in the mixtures.

The Bionomics of some Tree-hole Mosquitos

1929 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary V. F. Beattie ◽  
Lucy J. Howland
Keyword(s):  
Algal Species ◽  
Animal Food ◽  
Tree Hole ◽  
Tree Holes

1. 138 larvae of Anopheles, Finlaya and Orthopodomyia, collected from three tree-holes described in Part I, were dissected and their contents examined.2. Small algae, a few animals, bacteria and considerable quantities of rotting vegetation were found in them.3. The algal and animal food seems to be insufficient for the anabolic processes of the larvae.4. It is possible that bacteria may play some part in their nutrition, especially of Orthopodomyia.5. It is also suggested that the larvae are able to utilise any food constituents present in the vegetable debris.I wish to thank Dr. P. A. Buxton for the interest he has shown during the progress of this work, and Professor F. E. Fritsch for help in identification of the algal species.

scholarly journals Larval breeding habitats and ecological factors influence the species composition of mosquito (Diptera : Culicidae) in the parks of Dhaka city, Bangladesh

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afroza Sultana ◽  
Sharmin Hasan ◽  
Mosharraf Hossain ◽  
Abdul Alim ◽  
Mohammad Al Mamun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mosquito Control ◽  
Mosquito Species ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Control Program ◽  
Breeding Habitat ◽  
Coconut Shell ◽  
Larval Abundance ◽  
Tree Hole ◽  
Breeding Habitats ◽  
Tree Holes

Mosquito larval ecology is prerequisite for determining the larval abundance and species assemblage in mosquito control program. The study explored the association of five mosquito species with their breeding habitat diversity and species distribution in three selected parks from May to October, 2015. A total of 3217 mosquito larvae were reported from six breeding habitats, namely tree hole, leaf axils, water bottle, tire, drain and coconut shell. The frequency of the three species (Ae. aegypti, Ae. albopictus and Ar. subalbatus) coexistence was higher in tree holes (82.4%) than that of the other coexisting species. Pearson Chi-square result revealed that the association of species was significantly dependent on the breeding habitats. ANOVA further suggested that mosquito density varied across habitats where among the highest density of Cx. quinquefasciatus (3.87 ± 0.22) found in drain, followed by both Ae. albopictus (2.02 ± 0.17) and Ar. subalbatus (0.50 ± 0.09) in tree holes and Ae. aegypti (1.25 ± 0.23) in coconut shell. Cx. tritaeniorhynchus occurred in drain with the least observed density (0.03 ± 0.01). CCA results suggested that Aedes species were likely preferred to oviposit in shaded habitats where pH was associated with Ae. albopictus and dissolved oxygen was with Ae. aegypti and Ar. subalbatus. Culex species were positively associated with the habitats characterizing muddy bottom and emerging vegetation but not with any of the physico-chemical parameters. These findings concluded that ecological factors influence mosquito species to favor their breeding habitats can be helpful in controlling targeted vector species as well as the mosquito borne diseases.Bangladesh J. Zool. 45(2): 111-122, 2017

scholarly journals Population Studies of Tree Hole Breeding Aedes Species (Diptera: Culicidae) in Dhaka University Campus and its Adjacent Suhrawardi Park, Dhaka City, Bangladesh

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Nargis Sultana ◽  
Tangin Akter ◽  
Shefali Begum
Keyword(s):  
Population Studies ◽  
Botanical Garden ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Species Trees ◽  
Aedes Mosquito ◽  
Larval Population ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Tree Hole ◽  
Tree Holes ◽  
Bambusa Nutans

A survey of the larval population of tree hole breeding Aedes mosquito was conducted from January to December, 2010 in four different areas of Dhaka University Campus and its adjacent Suhrawardi park. A total of 689 mosquito larvae was collected during the survey. Among them 396 (57.47%) were Aedes albopictus, 51 (7.02%) were Ae. aegypti and 242 (35.12%) other Aedes species, and the number of male and female among them was counted 347 (50.36%) and 342 (49.63%), respectively. Among the varieties of plant species in the study area only 27 species of trees were found with 56 holes wherein 34 holes of 17 species trees were used by mosquitoes for breeding ground. The highest number (160) of larvae was found in bamboo (Bambusa nutans) stumps hole and lowest (13) in Delonix regia hole. The highest number of larval population was collected in September and the larval population increased from March to September and then gradually decreased. No mosquito larva was found in the tree holes in January and February. The number of larvae collected from different survey areas also varied which were 309 (44.84%), 152 (22.06%), 145 (21.04%) and 83 (12.04%) in Suhrawardi park, and the Arts building, Curzon hall and Botanical garden of Dhaka University, respectively. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjz.v40i1.12887 Bangladesh J. Zool. 40(1): 1-11, 2012

Tree hole mosquito species composition and relative abundances differ between urban and adjacent forest habitats in northwestern Argentina

2017 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Mangudo ◽  
J.P. Aparicio ◽  
G.C. Rossi ◽  
R.M. Gleiser
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Mosquito Species ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Larval Habitats ◽  
Species Association ◽  
Tree Hole ◽  
Dengue Outbreaks ◽  
Forested Areas ◽  
Tree Holes

AbstractWater-holding tree holes are main larval habitats for many pathogen vectors, especially mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae). Along 3 years, the diversity and composition of mosquito species in tree holes of two neighbouring but completely different environments, a city and its adjacent forest, were compared using generalized linear mixed models, PERMANOVA, SIMPER and species association indexes. The city area (Northwest Argentina) is highly relevant epidemiologically due to the presence of Aedes aegypti L. (main dengue vector) and occurrence of dengue outbreaks; the Yungas rainforests are highly biologically diverse. In total seven mosquito species were recorded, in descending order of abundance: Ae. aegypti, Haemagogus spegazzinii Brèthes, Sabethes purpureus (Theobald), Toxorhynchites guadeloupensis Dyar and Knab, Aedes terrens Walker, Haemagogus leucocelaenus Dyar & Shannon and Sabethes petrocchiae (Shannon and Del Ponte). The seven mosquito species were recorded in both city sites and forested areas; however, their mosquito communities significantly diverged because of marked differences in the frequency and relative abundance of some species: Tx. guadeloupensis and Ae. aegypti were significantly more abundant in forest and urban areas, respectively. Positive significant associations were detected between Ae. aegypti, Hg. spegazzinii and Hg. leucocelaenus. The combined presence of Ae. aegypti, Haemagogus and Sabethes in the area also highlight a potential risk of yellow fever epidemics. Overall results show an impoverished tree hole mosquito fauna in urban environments, reflecting negative effects of urbanization on mosquito diversity.

scholarly journals Why species richness of plants and herbivorous insects do or do not correlate

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoto Shinohara ◽  
Takehito Yoshida
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Insect Species ◽  
Herbivorous Insect ◽  
Insect Communities ◽  
Total Plant ◽  
Insect Species Richness ◽  
Opposing Effects ◽  
Generalist Insect ◽  
Number Of Plant Species

AbstractUnraveling the determinants of herbivorous insect diversity has been a major challenge in ecology. Despite the strong association between insect and plant species, previous studies conducted in natural systems have shown great variation in the strength of the correlation between their species richness. Such variation can be attributed to the proportion of generalist insect species (generality), though both higher and lower generality may weaken the correlation because 1) generalist insect species are less dependent on the number of plant species and 2) specialist insect species utilize only a part of the total plant species. To explore these opposing effects, we studied plant and herbivorous insect communities in semi-natural grasslands in Japan. Plant–insect interactions were evaluated in a unique way with a particular focus on the staying and herbivory behaviors of insects, which reflect their habitat use as well as host use. We fousnd that generality of insect communities negatively affected the correlation between species richness of plants and insects. However, such negative effect was significant only when the insect species richness was related with the number of plant species interacted with some insect species, instead of with that of total plant species. The results suggest that considering either of the opposing effects of insect generality is insufficient and they should be inclusively interpreted to understand the relationship between plant and insect species richness.

scholarly journals Vertical stratification of plant–pollinator interactions in a temperate grassland

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e4998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Klecka ◽  
Jiří Hadrava ◽  
Pavla Koloušková
Keyword(s):  
Plant Traits ◽  
Vertical Stratification ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Vertical Position ◽  
Individual Plant ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Visitation Rate ◽  
Flower Visitation ◽  
Pollinator Community ◽  
Plant Pollinator

Visitation of plants by different pollinators depends on individual plant traits, spatial context, and other factors. A neglected aspect of small-scale variation of plant–pollinator interactions is the role of vertical position of flowers. We conducted a series of experiments to study vertical stratification of plant–pollinator interactions in a dry grassland. We observed flower visitors on cut inflorescences ofCentaurea scabiosaandInula salicinaplaced at different heights above ground in two types of surrounding vegetation: short and tall. Even at such a small-scale, we detected significant shift in total visitation rate of inflorescences in response to their vertical position. In short vegetation, inflorescences close to the ground were visited more frequently, while in tall vegetation, inflorescences placed higher received more visits. Moreover, we found major differences in the composition of the pollinator community on flowers at different heights. In a second experiment, we measured flower visitation rate in inflorescences ofSalvia verticillataof variable height. Total flower visitation rate increased markedly with inflorescence height in this case. Data on seed set of individual plants provide evidence for a corresponding positive pollinator-mediated selection on increased inflorescence height. Overall, our results demonstrate strong vertical stratification of plant–pollinator interactions at the scale of mere decimetres. This may have important ecological as well as evolutionary implications.

Observations on Toxorhynchites brevipalpis conradti Grünb. (Diptera, Culicidae) in Uganda

1963 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip S. Corbet
Keyword(s):  
Pupal Stage ◽  
Instar Larva ◽  
Fourth Instar ◽  
Female Adult ◽  
Tree Hole ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
Tree Holes ◽  
Medical Importance ◽  
Average Size ◽  
Made In

Observations made in Uganda on eight individuals of the mosquito Toxorhynchites brevipalpis conradti Grünb. reared in captivity from egg to adult are recorded. Larvae of this species are predatory and coexist in tree holes with those of mosquitos of medical importance.The identification of larvae and pupae is discussed, and information provided on the following subjects: the amount of food (living larvae of Aedcs acgypti (L.)) needed for larvae to complete development; the feeding and killing behaviour of fourth-instar larvae; duration of the pupal stage; and the rate of autogenous ovarian development in the unfed female adult.The compulsive killing behaviour shown by a fourth-instar larva about two days before it pupates could be expected to cause the death of all the other mosquito larvae in a tree hole of average size. This species is unusual among mosquitos in that pupae of females developed more rapidly than those of males.

scholarly journals Abiotic Community Constraints in Extreme Environments: Epikarst Copepods as a Model System

Diversity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 269
Author(s):  
Tanja Pipan ◽  
Mary C. Christman ◽  
David C. Culver
Keyword(s):  
Random Forests ◽  
Extreme Environments ◽  
Model System ◽  
Statistical Analyses ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Niche Separation ◽  
General Hypothesis ◽  
Temperature Conductivity ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
Chemical Factors

The general hypothesis that the overall presence or absence of one or more species in an extreme habitat is determined by physico-chemical factors was investigated using epikarst copepod communities as a model system, an example of an extreme environment with specialized, often rare species. The relationship between the presence or absence of epikarst copepods from drips in six Slovenian caves and 12 physico-chemical factors (temperature, conductivity, pH, Ca2+, Na+, K+, Mg2+, NH4+, and Cl−, NO2−, NO3−, and SO42−) was explored. Statistical analyses included principal components analysis, logistic mixed models, stepwise logistic multivariate regression, classification trees, and random forests. Parametric statistical analyses demonstrated the overall importance of two variables—temperature and conductivity. The more flexible statistical approaches, namely categorical trees and random forests, indicate that temperature and concentrations of Ca2+ and Mg2+ were important. This may be because they are essential nutrients or, at least in the case of Ca2+, its importance in molting. The correlation of Cl− and NO3− with copepod abundance may be due to unmeasured variables that vary at the scale of individual cave, but in any case, the values have an anthropogenic component. This contrasts with factors important in individual species’ niche separation, which overlap with the community parameters only for NO3−.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document