No tree an island: the plant–caterpillar food web of a secondary rain forest in New Guinea |
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| Authors: | Vojtech Novotny Scott E Miller Jan Leps Yves Basset Darren Bito Milan Janda Jiri Hulcr Kipiro Damas George D Weiblen |
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| Institution: | Institute of Entomology, Czech Academy of Sciences and Biological Faculty, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic; National Museum of Natural History and National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, PO Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072, Balboa, Ancon, Panama; Department of Biology, University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby and New Guinea Binatang Research Center, PO Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea; Forest Research Institute, PO Box 314, Lae, Papua New Guinea; Department of Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, 1445 Gortner Avenue, St Paul 55108, MN, USA |
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| Abstract: | We characterized a plant–caterpillar food web from secondary vegetation in a New Guinean rain forest that included 63 plant species (87.5% of the total basal area), 546 Lepidoptera species and 1679 trophic links between them. The strongest 14 associations involved 50% of all individual caterpillars while some links were extremely rare. A caterpillar randomly picked from the vegetation will, with ≥ 50% probability, (1) feed on one to three host plants (of the 63 studied), (2) feed on < 20% of local plant biomass and (3) have ≥ 90% of population concentrated on a single host plant species. Generalist species were quantitatively unimportant. Caterpillar assemblages on locally monotypic plant genera were distinct, while sympatric congeneric hosts shared many caterpillar species. The partitioning of the plant–caterpillar food web thus depends on the composition of the vegetation. In secondary forest the predominant plant genera were locally monotypic and supported locally isolated caterpillar assemblages. |
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| Keywords: | Ecological succession herbivore communities host specificity insect–plant interactions invasive species Lepidoptera Malesia Papua New Guinea species richness tropical forests |
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