The ecology of arthropod communities associated with Heliconia leaf curls in Tambopata Wildlife Reserve, southeast Peru
1986
Report
Unpublished report of the Cambridge Tambopata Study Group
Reserva Nacional Tambopata plants Heliconia leaves herbivory animals invertebrates arthropods insects plant-animal interactions ecology intermediate spatial scales biomass habitat heterogeneity Madre de Dios Bibliography
The genus Heliconia is common in the understory of two forest areas in the TRZ (floodplain and upland forest) each one of them presents four types of communities of arthropods. At the beginning the "platanillo" leaves are rolled up like a tube, which frequently contained a variety of different insects. These communities are ideal to study the ecology of the different tropical associations of insects, and of particular interest for all the investigations of the structure of the phytophagous insect communities. The species of insects and their associations were registered in the leaf curls communities of Heliconia at TRZ. The possible interactions among species were analyzed statistically. The data collected permited the interpretation of the feeding chain in these communities. The content of 118 leaf curls were analyzed in nine locations at TRZ and the samples of leafs and insects were dried and weighed to determine the biomass in each of the registered places. In six of the nine locations, the biomass of predators exceeded the one of the herbivorous. In floodplain forest, the biomass is only 7% greater than that of the upland forests. With reference to the structure of the communities the hispines beetles are the most abundant (a total of 10 different species were registered) and apparently they occupy the same habitat and they feed on the same resources, therefore, competition is a very important fact among this population. There are also other species of Chrysomelidae, Staphylinidae, Pettigonidae, Carabidae, Thysanoptera. Apparently, the abundance of herbivorous insects depends on the density of Heliconia, while this does not happen for predators and insects that eat rotten flesh. The communities of insects associated to Heliconia are not a closed system since the predators insects living there will feed themselves also in other places.