Abstract
Biotic invasion in mutualistic communities is of particular interest due to the possible establishment of new relationships with native species. Ficus species are widely cultivated as ornamental plants, and they host specific communities of chalcid wasps that are strictly associated with the fig inflorescences. Some introduced fig species are capable of establishing new relationships with the local fig wasps, and fig wasp species may also be concomitantly introduced with their host plants. Ficusbenjamina L. is widely cultivated across the world, but the associated fig wasps are not reported outside of the species native range. We describe for the first time a non-pollinating fig wasp associated with F.benjamina inflorescences outside its native distribution. Sycobiahodites Farache & Rasplus, sp. n. is the third known species of the genus and was recorded in populations of F.benjamina introduced in the Neotropical region throughout several localities in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. Sycobia is a gall-inducing non-pollinating fig wasp genus associated with fig trees in the Oriental and Australasian regions. This species competes with pollinators for oviposition sites and may hinder the future establishment of the native pollinator of F.benjamina, Eupristinakoningsbergeri Grandi, 1916 in the New World. However, the occurrence of a gall inducing species in this host plant may open ecological opportunities for the establishment of species belonging to other trophic levels such as cleptoparasite and parasitoid wasps.
Highlights
Biotic invasions are altering the world’s natural communities at an unprecedented level, and they impose a global challenge for the conservation of biodiversity and the maintenance of ecological communities (Mack et al 2000; Simberloff et al 2013; Vitousek et al 1997)
Each gall of Sycobia was induced in a single fig pistillate flower, as remnants of flower stigmata could be observed on the galls (Fig. 2)
Ficus benjamina is widely cultivated around the world as an ornamental plant, yet few cases of fig wasp colonists are known for this species
Summary
Biotic invasions are altering the world’s natural communities at an unprecedented level, and they impose a global challenge for the conservation of biodiversity and the maintenance of ecological communities (Mack et al 2000; Simberloff et al 2013; Vitousek et al 1997). (Dehgan 1998; Ibarra-Manríquez et al 2012) These trees are cultivated in urban areas and roadsides in several (sub)tropical and temperate countries. As they depend on their specific pollinators to reproduce, they cannot propagate sexually outside their original range of distribution in the absence of their obligate pollinators. Wasp species associated with local figs may colonize the newly introduced fig trees, develop inside figs and pollinate (Ramírez and Montero 1988; van Noort et al 2013). Non-pollinating fig wasps often establish outside their native ranges on their native host-plant These species are usually referred as ‘followers’ whereas some local species that colonize introduced fig species are referred as ‘colonists’ (van Noort et al 2013; Wang et al 2015a)
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