Diversity of insect galls in veredas of the Brazilian Cerrado in Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

Brazilian veredas are hygrophilous communities with high species diversity, featuring many floristic studies but a still incipient number of faunistic studies. In the present study, we conducted an inventory of insect galls in four different veredas located in the Northern region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Overall, we found 75 gall morphotypes, distributed across 50 host species representing 37 plant genera and 22 families. Fabaceae was the plant family with the greatest number of insect gall morphotypes (n = 21), followed by Malpighiaceae (n = 10). The plant genera that supported the highest diversity of insect galls were Copaifera (n = 8) and Byrsomima (n = 5). The plant species Copaifera oblongifolia (n = 6) and Anacardium humile (n = 4) exhibited the highest richness of insect galls. The leaves were the most attacked organs (89% of all galls). Most morphotypes are glabrous (83%), green (69%) and lenticular (60%). The taxa of gall-inducing insects were identified for 46 morphotypes (80%), and were recorded inducers from the orders Diptera, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera. Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) was the most representative galling group, with 42 morphotypes, making up 93.3% of the recorded inducers. Among the sampled veredas areas, the Vereda do Peruaçu presented the highest richness of insect gall morphotypes and host plant species. The faunistic similarity was higher in the Pedras and Tiririca veredas, followed by Almescla and Peruaçu veredas. This is the first systematic inventory of insect galls and their host plant in Brazilian veredas. The diversity of insect galls in the studied veredas is relatively high when compared to other Brazilian Cerrado vegetation types.