Abstract
Abstract Elevation has strong effects on climate and biota. In Hawaii, elevation on volcanic mountains affects temperature, rainfall, vegetation, and fauna. The effect of elevation on animal distribution and abundance can be direct through effects on climate or, in the case of phytophagous insects, indirectly mediated through climatic effects on host plants. In montane wet forests dominated by Metrosideros polymorpha (ohia lehua) and Acacia koa (koa), longhorned wood-boring beetles (Cerambycidae, Plagithmysus) play an important role as decomposers of wood and as food for higher trophic levels. The beetles I studied feed exclusively on dead wood of koa. I assessed the effect of elevation on the density of longhorned beetles in plantations of koa at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, Hawaii. Density per branch of longhorned beetles was more than twice as great in the low-elevation sample (1,620–1,650 m; 3.49 beetles/branch, n = 200) as in the high-elevation sample (1,880–1,970 m; 1.61 beetles/branch...
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