Does environmental diversity affect hymenopteran galling insects and their natural enemies on Caryocar brasiliense trees (Caryocaraceae)?
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Caryocar brasiliense (Malpighiales: Caryocaraceae) trees, protected by Brazilian federal laws, are the main income source in many communities. The transformation of the Cerrado (savanna biome) into grazing or agricultural areas has been isolating these trees species in an agro-urban landscape. We studied the effects of environmental diversity on the abundance of galling insect communities inhabiting C. brasiliense trees in three different environments: Cerrado, pasture, and an urban area. Eurytoma sp. (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae) adults and their galls, its parasitoid Sycophila sp. (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae) and the predator Zelus armillatus (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) were present in larger numbers on the C. brasiliense leaflets in the urban area. The percentages of totally galled leaflets (exhibiting all kinds of galls) and the number of trees were negatively correlated. Greater habitat diversity favored that of galling insect species and their natural enemies.
Downloads
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors retain the copyright on their work and are responsible for the ideas expressed in them. Once a manuscript is approved for publication, authors are asked for a publication license for the term of legal protection, for all territories that allows the use, dissemination and disclosure of the same.