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Many caterpillars in a montane rain forest in Ecuador are not classical herbivores

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2015

Florian Bodner ,
Gunnar Brehm  and
Konrad Fiedler
Florian Bodner*
Affiliation:
Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030 Vienna, Austria
Gunnar Brehm
Affiliation:
Institut für Spezielle Zoologie und Evolutionsbiologie mit Phyletischem Museum, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Erbertstraße 1, 07743 Jena, Germany
Konrad Fiedler
Affiliation:
Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030 Vienna, Austria
*
1Corresponding author. Email: florian.bodner@univie.ac.at
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Abstract:

Lepidopteran caterpillars are typically classified as herbivorous insects. Other feeding associations have been known for a long time but are often neglected in the ecological literature. In samples from 194 shrubs belonging to 16 species of Piperaceae and Asteraceae, which were taken in a montane forest and succession habitats in southern Ecuador, caterpillar assemblages included an unexpectedly large fraction not feeding on the living biomass of their putative ‘host’. Feeding trials revealed them to instead feed on foliose lichens, dead leaves and epiphylls (lichen, algae, bryophytes). These ‘alternative feeders’ accounted for 22.5% of the whole dataset and up to 80% of the caterpillars on individual plant species. Densities of alternative feeders were very similar across shrub species within each plant family, but differed strongly between Asteraceae in succession and Piperaceae in forest habitats. Herbivore caterpillars showed the opposite pattern with strong differences between individual plant species, but overall similar densities on both plant families.

Keywords

AndesAsteraceaefeeding guildsLepidopteraPiperaceaetropical montane forest
Type
Short Communication
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 31 , Issue 5 , September 2015 , pp. 473 - 476
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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