Abstract
Anatomical studies in the leaflet globoid galls of Caryocar brasiliense, the “pequi”, aimed to answer how oviposition and the feeding behavior of the galling herbivores altered the morphogenical patterns of the host plant. C. brasiliense globoid gall was 1.28 ± 0.20 mm × 0.90 ± 0.25 mm, with hairy surface; it is sessile and projected to the abaxial surface. Young galls were red while the mature ones were green. Preferentially, they were formed next to leaf margin and possessed one larval chamber containing a single galling specimen. Gall epidermis was uniseriate, with thicker cuticle and more hairy. In some spots, epidermis was substituted by periderm, which indicated the expression of a character usually absent in the leaf laminas. Morphological and anatomical features of these gall morphotype, such as its position in leaf lamina, the fact of being truly closed galls, with typical nutritive tissue involved by sclerenchyma, made them next to the pattern proposed for galls induced by some Hymenoptera.
Highlights
Galls are abnormal growths induced by viruses, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, mites and insects on a wide variety of host plants
Anatomical studies in the leaflet globoid galls of Caryocar brasiliense, the “pequi”, aimed to answer how oviposition and the feeding behavior of the galling herbivores altered the morphogenetical patterns of the host plant
The gall of Caryocar brasiliense develops in the leaflet lamina, because of the feeding action of a gall-inducing Hymenoptera
Summary
Galls are abnormal growths induced by viruses, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, mites and insects on a wide variety of host plants As they cause damages to the development of their host, they may occupy an important place in plant pathology [1]. Gall structures vary enormously from simple masses of parenchyma cells to a set of highly specialized and organized tissues [2] which can be absent in the host plant organs [3]. This structure have a modern definition proposed by Raman [4], namely, they are structures induced by insects and generally are symmetrical in form. According to Mani [6], the basic character of a gall is not either its inducing organism or its abnormal structure, but how the cells next to the gall site escape their normal morphogenesis and assume a new pattern
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