Species richness is an important characteristic of ecological communities, but it is difficult to quantify. We report here a thorough inventory of a tropical rain forest ant fauna and use it to evaluate species richness estimators. The study was carried out in ;1500 ha of lowland rain forest at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. Diverse methods were used, including canopy fogging, Malaise traps, Berlese samples, Winkler samples, baiting, and manual search. Workers of 437 ant species were encountered. The abundance distribution was clearly lognormal, and the distribution emerged from a veil line with each doubling of sampling effort. Three richness estimates were calculated: the area under the fitted lognormal distribution, the asymptote of the Michaelis-Menten equation fit to the species accumulation curve, and the Incidence-based Coverage Estimator (ICE). The per- formance of the estimators was evaluated with sample-based rarefaction plots. The inventory was nearly complete because the species accumulation curve approached an asymptote, the richness estimates were very close to the observed species richness, and the uniques and duplicates curves were both declining. None of the richness estimators was stable in sample- based rarefaction plots, but regions of stability of estimators occurred. The explanation of rarity is one key to understanding why richness estimates fail. Fifty-one species (12% of the total) were still uniques (known from only one sample) at the end of the inventory. The rarity of 20 of these species was explained by ''edge effects'': ''methodological edge species'' (possibly abundant at the site but difficult to sample because of their microhabitat), and ''geographic edge species,'' known to be common in habitats or regions outside of La Selva. Rarity of 31 species remained unexplained. Most of the 51 rare species were known from additional collections outside of La Selva, either in other parts of Costa Rica or in other countries. Only six species were ''global uniques,'' known to date from only one sample on Earth. The study demonstrates that patterns of species occurrence early in an inventory may be inadequate to estimate species richness, but that relatively complete inventories of species-rich arthropod communities are possible if multiple sampling methods and extensive effort are applied.

/pdf/the-ant-fauna-of-a-tropical-rain-forest-estimating-species-33x0cvuqn9.pdf

The ant fauna of a tropical rain forest: estimating species richness three different ways

The host specificity, taxonomic composition and feeding guild of rare species were studied in communities of herbivorous insects in New Guinea. Leaf-chewing and sap-sucking insects (Orthoptera, Phasmatodea, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Hemiptera-Auchenorrhyncha) were sampled from 30 species of trees and shrubs (15 spp. of Ficus, Moraceae, six spp. of Macaranga and nine species of other Euphorbiaceae) in a lowland rain forest. Feeding trials were performed with all leaf-chewers in order to exclude transient species. Overall, the sampling produced 80 062 individuals of 1050 species. The species accumulation curve did not attain an asymptote, despite 950 person-days of sampling. Rare species, defined as those found as single individuals, remained numerous even in large samples and after the exclusion of transient, non-feeding species. There was no difference among plant species in the proportion of rare species in their herbivore communities, which was, on average, 45%. Likewise, various herbivore guilds and taxa had all very similar proportions of rare and common species. There was also no difference between rare and common species in their host specificity. Both highly specialised species and generalists, feeding on numerous plants, contributed to the singleton records on particular plant species. Predominantly, a species was rare on a particular host whilst more common on other, often related, host species, or relatively rare on numerous other host plants, so that its aggregate population was high. Both cases are an example of the “mass effect”, since it is probable that such rare species were dependent on a constant influx of immigrants from the other host plants. These other plants were found particularly often among congeneric plants, less so among confamilial plants from different genera and least frequently among plants from different families. There were also 278 very rare species, found as one individual on a single plant species only. Their host specificity could not be assessed; they might have been either very rare specialists, or species feeding also on other plants, those that were not studied. The former possibility is unlikely since monophagous species, collected as singletons at the present sampling effort, would have existed at an extremely low population density, less than 1 individual per 10 ha of the forest.

Rare species in communities of tropical insect herbivores: pondering the mystery of singletons

An overview is presented of the progress made on the taxonomy, classification and phylogeny of weevils in the 250 years since the first taxonomic descriptions of weevils by Carolus Linnaeus. The number of described weevils species is calculated to be about 62 000 and the likely total number of existing species 220 000, indicating that we have described just over a quarter of the diversity of this important group of beetles and that, at current rates of discovery and description, it will take another 650 years or so to describe the rest. Within the framework of the current concept of weevil phylogeny, a brief account is given of the seven main weevil lineages (families), and of the subfamilies of the largest of them, the Curculionidae, summarising their diversity, distribution and biology and identifying the major classificatory problems remaining in each. In conjunction with the phylogenetic hypothesis of weevil relationships and their fossil record, which is briefly summarised, the evolutionary history of weevils is mapped as a sequence of key evolutionary innovations that together have led to the phenomenal diversification and success of weevils.

/pdf/weevils-weevils-weevils-everywhere-3hne5sxu9t.pdf

Weevils, weevils, weevils everywhere*

Plants frequently suffer attack from herbivores and microbial pathogens, and have evolved a complex array of defence mechanisms to resist defoliation and disease. These include both preformed defences, ranging from structural features to stores of toxic secondary metabolites, and inducible defences, which are activated only after an attack is detected. It is well known that plant defences against pests and pathogens are commonly affected by environmental conditions, but the mechanisms by which responses to the biotic and abiotic environments interact are only poorly understood. In this review, we consider the impact of light on plant defence, in terms of both plant life histories and rapid scale molecular responses to biotic attack. We bring together evidence that illustrates that light not only modulates defence responses via its influence on biochemistry and plant development but, in some cases, is essential for the development of resistance. We suggest that the interaction between the light environment and plant defence is multifaceted, and extends across different temporal and biological scales.

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2006.01707.x

Seduced by the dark side: integrating molecular and ecological perspectives on the influence of light on plant defence against pests and pathogens.

Summary


1
The effects of experimental long-term summer drought and irrigation on soil fauna were studied in a Norway spruce stand in south-western Sweden. The treatments, carried out over 8 and 10 years respectively, were chosen to simulate two scenarios of climate change, involving drier and wetter summers.

2
Different microarthropod communities developed in the different treatments. The abundances of enchytraeids, mesostigmatid mites and macroarthropod predators were all lowest in the drought plots. Drought decreased and irrigation increased the abundance and diversity of Oribatida. Drought decreased the abundance of Collembola.

3
The dominance structure of Oribatida and Collembola also changed, but less markedly. Drought affected community composition of both groups more than irrigation.

4
The study confirms that soil microarthropods can be useful environmental indicators, but their responses did not support the widely held view that deviations from a log-normal dominance structure indicates a stressed community.

5
The results also indicate that a drier climate with summer drought will lead to the local extinction of some soil animal species in this region.

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1046/j.1365-2664.2002.00769.x

Effects of experimental irrigation and drought on the composition and diversity of soil fauna in a coniferous stand

YVES BASSET '\ VOJTECH NOVOTNY$\ SCOTT E[ MILLER% and NEIL D[ SPRINGATE& International Institute of Entomology\ London\ UK^ $Institute of Entomology\ Czech Academy of Sciences + University of South Bohemia\ Branisovska 20\ 269 94 Ceske Budejovice\ Czech Republic^ %Bishop Museum\ Honolulu + International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology\ PO Box 29661\ Nairobi\ Kenya^ and &The Natural History Museum\ Entomology Department\ Cromwell Road\ London SW6 4BD\ UK

Assessing the impact of forest disturbance on tropical invertebrates: some comments

The diel activity of arboreal arthropods associated with the Australian rainforest tree Argyrodendron actinophyllum was investigated with interception traps during a week in the summer season When all arthropods were considered, there were no significant differences in flight activity, expressed as either numbers of individuals, numbers of species or biomass, between day-time and night-time Flights of fungalfeeding species were not restricted to night-time, presumably because scents may also spread well during day-time with the high humidity of the rainforest However, arthropod activity was high during night-time in comparison with temperate woodlands, and herbivores were generally more active during night-time than during day-time, whereas this was the reverse for predators and parasitoids These limited data tend to support the hypothesis that some herbivores may feed during night-time in rainforests in order to escape predators and parasitoids

Diel activity of arboreal arthropods associated with a rainforest tree

Observations on the relative effectiveness of Scolytus multistriatus (Marsham) and Scolytus pygmaeus (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) as vectors of the Dutch elm disease.

L'ampleur de la variation de la taille du corps et le rerime alimentaire: une etuded en Paouasie Nouvelle-Guinee avec des chrysomeles et charancons arboricoles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae, Curculiomidae). -Nous avons mesure l'ampleur de la variation intraspecifique de la taille du corps (definie comme le quotient de longueurs maximum: minimum mesurees dans une population d'au moins 10 individus) de respectivement 33 et 39 morpho-especes de Chrysomelidae et Curculonidae, qui ont ete recoltees a l'aide de diverses methodes sur le feuillage de 10 especes d'arbres provenant d'une meme localite, pres de wau, en Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinee

Feeding habits and range of body size : a case study in Papua New Guinea using arboreal leaf-beetles and weevils (Coleoptera : Chrysomelidae, Curculionidae)

The priority of Pamphilioidea over other names in the literature for a monophyletic superfamily of sawflies, containing only the families Pamphiliidae and Megalodontesidae as extant taxa, is established.

On the correct use of the superfamilial name Pamphilioidea (Insecta: Hymenoptera)

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