be mediated by seed predation caused by a wood borer insect Rodrigo - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Mistletoe-host specificity can be mediated by seed predation caused by a wood borer insect Rodrigo Fadini 1, * , Ana Mellado 2 and Leidielly Ghizoni 1 1 Instituto de Biodiversidade e Florestas , Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará, Santarém, PA, Brazil 2 Grupo de Ecología Terrestre, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain rfadini@gmail.com www.rodrigofadini-lab.com 1

Introduction  Host + specific* + mistletoe = 131 studies  Host specificity  Mistletoe infection prevalence 2

Introduction 3

Introduction 4 Ehleringer et al. 1985

Photo: Alex Wild (www.alexanderwild.com) Ants colonizing a tree branch Holes left by bark beetles 5 Ants colonizing mistletoe haustorium

Photo: Ana Mellado Mistletoe seed Insect 6

Our questions  Pre-dispersal or post-dispersal?  Seed predation differ among seeds planted on the branches of different tree species?  Host defense mechanism  mistletoe-host specificity? 7

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Fadini and Lima 2012. Biotropica 44(1) 9

Pre- or post-dispersal seed predation? 1 2 Naturally dispersed seeds (nds) Planted seeds (os) 3 10 Intact fruits (if)

SEED SCREENING  Proportion of mistletoe seeds predated = propagule category + # propagules collected per host  GLM with negative- binomial error distribution 11

Tree species planted with mistletoe seeds • A. occidentale • B. virgilioides • B. crassifolia • H. fallax • L. pacari • S. convallariaeodora 12

Hypothenemus sp. Photo: Fábio Godoi 13

60 Proportion of seeds preyed by beetles proporção de sementes predadas 50 BOTH BEETLES AND BEETLE HOLES 40 nds (Z=6,81, p˂0,001) 30 ps (Z=- 5,66, p˂0,001) 18,9% if (Z=- 3,4, p˂0,001) 20 10 0,7% 0,5% 0 fi sad snd If ps nds categoria do propágulo Propagule category 14

Hypothenemus sp. Tunnel excavated by Hypothenemus to reach the seed Region where the mistletoe seed was previously attached 15

53% on average 26% Hymfal Lafpac Salcon Anaocc Bowvir Byrcra Tree species 16

A host creates an enemy-free space for mistletoes by reducing seed predation caused by a woodboring beetle Submitted to Biotropica . 17

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Our conceptual hypothesis + (host recognition) (1) Survivorship Resin production of mistletoe - (mistletoe deterrence) by the host tree seeds (2) (3) - - (4) Beetle abundance on host branches 19

Acknowledgements 20

Thank you! 21