A compilation of host plants and their gall-inducing insects for the Caatinga Biome

Fernanda C F Cintra,Walter S De Araújo,Henrique Venâncio,Jean C Santos,Maria V Urso-Guimarães,Valéria C Maia,Marco A A Carneiro,Wanessa R De Almeida

doi:10.1590/1676-0611-bn-2021-1215

Abstract

Abstract: Caatinga is a seasonally dry tropical forest, one of the richest in plant species. Unfortunately, many groups of herbivorous insects associated with these plants are poorly known. This study aimed to investigate the diversity of gall-inducing insects (GII) and host plants (HP) in the Caatinga. For this, we compiled the information available in the literature of inventories on GII and their HP communities, and the described gall midge species. We found 100 species, 72 genera, and 32 families of HP hosting a total of 156 morphospecies of GII and 12 species of described cecidomyiids. Plant species with only one GII species represented 74% of hosts, but in super HP (i.e., HP with a high number of GII), despite the small number of HP species, there were many GII species. Fabaceae was also the most specious family, with 30% of HP species and 40% of GII. Furthermore, our results showed a low number of species of HP and GII for the Brazilian Caatinga, that we discussed this pattern with the following arguments, first, it is likely that the number of galling insect inventories for the Caatinga is under-sampled, second the Caatinga has a relatively smaller number of plant species when compared to other biomes, and finally, we argue that the Caatinga is a seasonally dry tropical forest where the deciduousness represents a relevant factor in the colonization and performance rates of GII.

Highlights

The Neotropical Seasonally Dry Forests are found from Northwestern Mexico to Northern Argentina and Southwestern Brazil in separate areas of varying sizes (Linares-Palomino et al, 2011)
When we compared our results with the taxa of species of plants of the Caatinga, we registered that only 2% of the species (4,891 spp. total), 6% of the genera (1,232 genera total), and 18% of the families (176 families total) of all plants of the Caatinga host galling insects
We found two species that are vulnerable to extinction (VU) according to the Red List of Brazilian Flora, and they were: Apuleia leiocarpa (Vogel) J.F.Macbr. (Fabaceae; two gall morphotypes) and Manilkara dardanoi Ducke (Sapotaceae; one gall morphotype)

Summary

Introduction

The Neotropical Seasonally Dry Forests are found from Northwestern Mexico to Northern Argentina and Southwestern Brazil in separate areas of varying sizes (Linares-Palomino et al, 2011). The Caatinga phytogeographic domain is a seasonally dry tropical forest (SDTF) (Pennington et al 2009) endemic to Brazil. At least 13 different physiognomies span a broad range of woody plant densities, and this is collectively referred to as the Caatingas (Prado 2003). Their flora is considered the most diverse for SDTFs on Earth (Silva et al 2019), harboring 4,891 species, 1,232 genera, 176 families of flowering plants, and 298 endemic species (Flora 2020) of 31 endemic genera (Queiroz et al 2017). Fabaceae is the most species-rich family, with 490 species among 112 genera (Fernandes et al 2020)

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