A new species of the rarely collected neotropical microgastrine braconid wasp genus Larissimus Nixon, represented previously by only a single described species, L. cassander Nixon, was recovered by the Caterpillars and Parasitoids of the... more
A new species of the rarely collected neotropical microgastrine braconid wasp genus Larissimus Nixon, represented previously by only a single described species, L. cassander Nixon, was recovered by the Caterpillars and Parasitoids of the Eastern Andes in Ecuador inventory project. Larissimus nigricanssp. nov. was reared from an unidentified species of arctiine Erebidae feeding on the common bamboo species Chusquea scandens Kunth at the Yanayacu Biological Station near Cosanga, Napo Province, Ecuador. The new species is described and diagnosed from L. cassander using both morphological and DNA barcode data.
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Brown, John W., Dyer, Lee A., Villamarín-Cortez, Santiago, Salcido, Danielle (2019): New larval host records for Tortricidae (Lepidoptera) from an Ecuadorian Andean cloud forest. Insecta Mundi 720: 1-12, DOI:... more
Brown, John W., Dyer, Lee A., Villamarín-Cortez, Santiago, Salcido, Danielle (2019): New larval host records for Tortricidae (Lepidoptera) from an Ecuadorian Andean cloud forest. Insecta Mundi 720: 1-12, DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3674915
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Moths are the most taxonomically and ecologically diverse insect taxon for which there exist considerable time-series abundance data. There is an alarming record of decreases in moth abundance and diversity from across Europe, with rates... more
Moths are the most taxonomically and ecologically diverse insect taxon for which there exist considerable time-series abundance data. There is an alarming record of decreases in moth abundance and diversity from across Europe, with rates varying markedly among and within regions. Recent reports from Costa Rica reveal steep cross-lineage declines of caterpillars, while other sites (Ecuador and Arizona, reported here) show no or only modest long-term decreases over the past two decades. Rates of decline for dietary and ecological specialists are steeper than those for ecologically generalized taxa. Additional traits commonly associated with elevated risks include large wingspans, small geographic ranges, low dispersal ability, and univoltinism; taxa associated with grasslands, aridlands, and nutrient-poor habitats also appear to be at higher risk. In temperate areas, many moth taxa limited historically by abiotic factors are increasing in abundance and range. We regard the most import...
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Ecological specialization is one of the most interesting and perplexing attributes of biological systems. While certain macroecological patterns, such as an increase in specialization at lower latitudes, have long been subjects of... more
Ecological specialization is one of the most interesting and perplexing attributes of biological systems. While certain macroecological patterns, such as an increase in specialization at lower latitudes, have long been subjects of investigation, there is much yet to be learned about inter-specific variation in specialization within diverse communities. High levels of specialization have been documented for some dominant ecological interactions, such as parasitism and herbivory, but much less is known about the relative abundance of specialists and generalists within those broad functional groups. We examine untested assumptions about the positive association between local abundance and dietary specialization using a 17-year dataset of caterpillar-plant interactions in Ecuador. Our long-term data consist of experimental verification of caterpillar-plant associations and include standardized plot-based samples as well as general, regional collections of caterpillars, allowing for inve...
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Deciphering the ecological roles of plant secondary metabolites requires integrative studies that assess both the allocation patterns of compounds and their bioactivity in ecological interactions. Secondary metabolites have been primarily... more
Deciphering the ecological roles of plant secondary metabolites requires integrative studies that assess both the allocation patterns of compounds and their bioactivity in ecological interactions. Secondary metabolites have been primarily studied in leaves, but many are unique to fruits and can have numerous potential roles in interactions with both mutualists (seed dispersers) and antagonists (pathogens and predators). We described 10 alkenylphenol compounds from the plant species Piper sancti‐felicis (Piperaceae), quantified their patterns of intraplant allocation across tissues and fruit development, and examined their ecological role in fruit interactions. We found that unripe and ripe fruit pulp had the highest concentrations and diversity of alkenylphenols, followed by flowers; leaves and seeds had only a few compounds at detectable concentrations. We observed a nonlinear pattern of alkenylphenol allocation across fruit development, increasing as flowers developed into unripe ...
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There is tremendous diversity of interactions between plants and other species. These relationships range from antagonism to mutualism. Interactions of plants with members of their ecological community can lead to a profound metabolic... more
There is tremendous diversity of interactions between plants and other species. These relationships range from antagonism to mutualism. Interactions of plants with members of their ecological community can lead to a profound metabolic reconfiguration of the plants’ physiology. This reconfiguration can favour beneficial organisms and deter antagonists like pathogens or herbivores. Determining the cellular and molecular dialogue between plants, microbes, and insects, and its ecological and evolutionary implications is important for understanding the options for each partner to adopt an adaptive response to its biotic environment. Moving forward, understanding how such ecological interactions are shaped by environmental change and how we potentially mitigate deleterious effects will be increasingly important. The development of integrative multidisciplinary approaches may provide new solutions to the major ecological and societal issues ahead of us. The rapid evolution of technology pr...
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The Lepidoptera of North America Network, or LepNet, is a digitization effort recently launched to mobilize biodiversity data from 3 million specimens of butterflies and moths in United States natural history collections... more
The Lepidoptera of North America Network, or LepNet, is a digitization effort recently launched to mobilize biodiversity data from 3 million specimens of butterflies and moths in United States natural history collections (http://www.lep-net.org/). LepNet was initially conceived as a North American effort but the project seeks collaborations with museums and other organizations worldwide. The overall goal is to transform Lepidoptera specimen data into readily available digital formats to foster global research in taxonomy, ecology and evolutionary biology.
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Species richness in tropical forests is correlated with other dimensions of diversity, including the diversity of plant–herbivore interactions and the phytochemical diversity that influences those interactions. Understanding the... more
Species richness in tropical forests is correlated with other dimensions of diversity, including the diversity of plant–herbivore interactions and the phytochemical diversity that influences those interactions. Understanding the complexity of plant chemistry and the importance of phytochemical diversity for plant–insect interactions and overall forest richness has been enhanced significantly by the application of metabolomics to natural systems. The present work used proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H‐NMR) profiling of crude leaf extracts to study phytochemical similarity and diversity among Piper plants growing naturally in the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil. Spectral profile similarity and chemical diversity were quantified to examine the relationship between metrics of phytochemical diversity, specialist and generalist herbivory, and understory plant richness. Herbivory increased with understory species richness, while generalist herbivory increased and specialist ...
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Intraspecific phytochemical variation across a landscape can cascade up trophic levels, potentially mediating the composition of entire insect communities. Surprisingly, we have little understanding of the processes that regulate and... more
Intraspecific phytochemical variation across a landscape can cascade up trophic levels, potentially mediating the composition of entire insect communities. Surprisingly, we have little understanding of the processes that regulate and maintain phytochemical variation likely because these processes are complex and operate simultaneously both temporally and spatially. To assess how phytochemistry varies within species, we tested the degree to which resource availability, contrasting soil type, and herbivory generate intraspecific chemical variation in growth and defense of the tropical shrub, Piper imperiale (Piperaceae). We quantified changes in both growth (e.g., nutritional protein, above- and below-ground biomass) and defense (e.g., imide chemicals) of individual plants using a well-replicated fully factorial shade-house experiment in Costa Rica. We found that plants grown in low light and nutrient-poor residual soil had reduced foliar protein, while those grown in high light and r...
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An increasing number of ecological studies have used chemical diversity as a functionally relevant, scalable measure of phytochemical mixtures, demanding more rigorous attention to how chemical diversity is estimated. Most studies have... more
An increasing number of ecological studies have used chemical diversity as a functionally relevant, scalable measure of phytochemical mixtures, demanding more rigorous attention to how chemical diversity is estimated. Most studies have focused on the composition of phytochemical mixtures and have largely ignored structural concerns, which may have greater importance for ecological function. Here, we explore the development of structural complexity and compositional diversity resulting from different biotic and abiotic interactions in Piper kelleyi Tepe (Piperaceae). We also describe how variation in structural complexity and compositional diversity differs between two congeners, P. kelleyi and P. reticulatum. To better interpret these results, we have developed a framework for interpreting these dimensions of chemical diversity in phytochemical mixtures. We used the tropical shrub, P. kelleyi, as a model system to examine interactions between ecological factors and dimensions of phy...
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The early stages are not described for any species of Corades Doubleday 1849. We describe the immature stages of Corades medeba Hewitson 1850 from northeastern Ecuador. Chusquea cf. scandens (Poaceae, Bambusoidea) is the larval food... more
The early stages are not described for any species of Corades Doubleday 1849. We describe the immature stages of Corades medeba Hewitson 1850 from northeastern Ecuador. Chusquea cf. scandens (Poaceae, Bambusoidea) is the larval food plant. Eggs are laid singly or in clusters of up to 11 on the bottom side of mature host plant leaves. The life cycle from egg to adult lasts 95-106 days. Adults are encountered most frequently on sunny days, flying rapidly over areas dominated by their food plant or feeding on the ground at mammal feces. Males guard perches near areas of food plant, usually in sunny areas or forest edges. No existen hasta este momento descripciones de los inmaduros para ninguna especie del genero Corades Doubleday 1849. En este trabajo describimos los estados inmaduros de Corades medeba Hewitson 1850 en el noreste de Ecuador. Chusquea cf. scandens (Poaceae, Bambusoidea) es la planta hospedera. La hembra pone huevos uno por uno o en grupos de hasta 11 unidades en el enve...
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Introduction: Body size is correlated with many aspects of an animal species' natural history, such as life span, abundance, dispersal capacity and diet breadth. However, contrasting trends have been reported for the relationship... more
Introduction: Body size is correlated with many aspects of an animal species' natural history, such as life span, abundance, dispersal capacity and diet breadth. However, contrasting trends have been reported for the relationship between body size and these ecological traits. Methods: Butterfly species from fruit-feeding guilds were used to investigate whether body size correlates with species abundances, dispersal, permanence, and diet breadth in a Neotropical savanna in Brazil (Cerrado). We used Blomberg’s K and Phylogenetic Generalized Least Squares models (PGLS) to measure phylogenetic signal strength in species traits, and to estimate size-dispersal-diet breadth associations while taking shared ancestry into account. Results: 539 individuals from 27 species were captured, and 190 individuals were recaptured, representing a 35% recapture rate. We found that body size negatively influenced butterfly abundance. In contrast, body size was positively associated with dispersal le...
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Foundational hypotheses addressing plant–insect codiversification and plant defense theory typically assume a macroevolutionary pattern whereby closely related plants have similar chemical profiles. However, numerous studies have... more
Foundational hypotheses addressing plant–insect codiversification and plant defense theory typically assume a macroevolutionary pattern whereby closely related plants have similar chemical profiles. However, numerous studies have documented variation in the degree of phytochemical trait lability, raising the possibility that phytochemical evolution is more nuanced than initially assumed. We utilize proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) data, chemical classification, and double digest restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (ddRADseq) to resolve evolutionary relationships and characterize the evolution of secondary chemistry in the Neotropical plant clade Radula (Piper; Piperaceae). Sequencing data substantially improved phylogenetic resolution relative to past studies, and spectroscopic characterization revealed the presence of 35 metabolite classes. Metabolite classes displayed phylogenetic signal, whereas the crude 1H NMR spectra featured little evidence of phylogenetic si...
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Creating robust datasets of plant–insect interactions is important for understanding ecosystem dynamics, and data on species interactions can be used to evaluate conservation interventions. In the present work, we collected... more
Creating robust datasets of plant–insect interactions is important for understanding ecosystem dynamics, and data on species interactions can be used to evaluate conservation interventions. In the present work, we collected plant–herbivore–parasitoid data on an understudied but critical ecosystem—gallery forests in the Brazilian cerrado. We collected caterpillars on shrubs of Piper (Piperaceae) over the course of a year in seven gallery forests of varying sizes in order to compare seasonal changes in α- and β- diversity and tritrophic interaction networks as well as the role of fragment size in determining species and interaction diversity. Caterpillars were more abundant and diverse in the wet season and also increased with resource availability—the more Piper individuals present, the greater the abundance and richness of herbivores. The number of unique interactions between (i) plants and herbivores and (ii) herbivores and parasitoids did not change across seasons, but there was a high degree of turnover in the herbivore fauna between sites and seasons. Specialization was greatest in the dry-rainy season transition, when new leaves typically flush. Consistent with records of parasitism rates in the cerrado sensu stricto, parasitism in the gallery forests was greatest in the dry-rainy seasons. Forest size was not related to caterpillar richness. Overall, this work demonstrates the conservation value of gallery forests in supporting plant species that span the Amazon and the Atlantic Rainforest as well as diverse and highly seasonal trophic interactions.
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Phytochemical traits are a key component of plant defense theory. Chemical ecology has been biased towards studying effects of individual metabolites even though effective plant defenses are comprised of diverse mixtures of metabolites.... more
Phytochemical traits are a key component of plant defense theory. Chemical ecology has been biased towards studying effects of individual metabolites even though effective plant defenses are comprised of diverse mixtures of metabolites. We tested the phytochemical landscape hypothesis, positing that trophic interactions are contingent upon their spatial location across a phytochemically diverse landscape. Specifically, intraspecific phytochemical changes associated with vertical strata in forests were hypothesised to affect herbivore communities of the neotropical shrub Piper kelleyi Tepe (Piperaceae). Using a field experiment, we found that phytochemical diversity increased with canopy height, and higher levels of phytochemical diversity located near the canopy were characterised by tradeoffs between photoactive and non‐photoactive biosynthetic pathways. For understory plants closer to the ground, phytochemical diversity increased as direct light transmittance decreased, and these ...
Research Interests: Biology, Ecology, Medicine, Canopy, Phytochemical, and 4 moreEcological Applications, Understory, Herbivore, and Shrub
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SummaryOver evolutionary timescales, shifts in plant secondary chemistry may be associated with patterns of diversification in associated arthropods. Although foundational hypotheses of plant-insect codiversification and plant defense... more
SummaryOver evolutionary timescales, shifts in plant secondary chemistry may be associated with patterns of diversification in associated arthropods. Although foundational hypotheses of plant-insect codiversification and plant defense theory posit closely related plants should have similar chemical profiles, numerous studies have documented variation in the degree of phylogenetic signal, suggesting phytochemical evolution is more nuanced than initially assumed. We utilize proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) data, chemical classification, and genotyping-by-sequencing to resolve evolutionary relationships and characterize the evolution of secondary chemistry in the Neotropical plant clade Radula (Piper; Piperaceae). Sequencing data substantially improved phylogenetic resolution relative to past studies, and spectroscopic characterization revealed the presence of 35 metabolite classes. Broad metabolite classes displayed strong phylogenetic signal, whereas the crude 1H NMR spectr...
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<p>(A) Full network, based on all interactions (similar to most networks assembled from data combined across time and space). Seasonal networks: (B) rainy season, (C) rainy to dry transition, (D) dry season, and (E) dry to rainy... more
<p>(A) Full network, based on all interactions (similar to most networks assembled from data combined across time and space). Seasonal networks: (B) rainy season, (C) rainy to dry transition, (D) dry season, and (E) dry to rainy transition. All network parameters from the seasonal networks were different from each other and from the full network. A network at the smallest spatial scale (10 m diameter plot) is also depicted (F), since this was the unit that was used to calculate turnover. Edge sizes are based on interaction abundances and nodes sizes are scaled larger for the 5 most abundant species. The most abundant nodes (greater than 90th percentile) that are present in each network are labeled with species codes from the supplemental species lists (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0203164#pone.0203164.s002" target="_blank">S2 Table</a>). Caterpillar nodes (without asterisks) are denoted as: A: <i>Eomichla sp</i>. (Oecophoridae); B: <i>Pococera oeredella</i> (Pyralidae); C: <i>Inga phaeocrassa</i> (Oecophoridae); D: unknown species (undetermined family); E: <i>Compsolechia sp</i>. (Gelechiidae). Plant nodes (with asterisks) as: A: <i>Roupala montana</i> (Proteaceae); B: <i>Qualea multiflora</i> (Vochysiaceae); C: <i>Myrsine guianensis</i> (Primulaceae); D. <i>Miconia albicans</i> (Melastomataceae); E. <i>Acosmium dasycarpum</i> (Fabaceae); F. <i>Qualea parviflora</i> (Vochysiaceae).</p
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This script converted the Phylip file that was generated by ipyrad into a Fasta file
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Individual fastq file from the genotyping by sequencing dataset
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Individual fastq file from the genotyping by sequencing dataset
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Individual fastq file from the genotyping by sequencing dataset
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Individual fastq file from the genotyping by sequencing dataset
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Individual fastq file from the genotyping by sequencing dataset
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Individual fastq file from the genotyping by sequencing dataset
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Individual fastq file from the genotyping by sequencing dataset
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Individual fastq file from the genotyping by sequencing dataset
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Reports of biodiversity loss have increasingly focused on the abundance and diversity of insects, but it has been less clear if substantive losses are occurring in intact low-latitude forests. We collected 22 years of... more
Reports of biodiversity loss have increasingly focused on the abundance and diversity of insects, but it has been less clear if substantive losses are occurring in intact low-latitude forests. We collected 22 years of plant-caterpillar-parasitoid data in a protected tropical forest and found reductions in diversity and density of these insects that appear to be partly driven by a changing climate and weather anomalies. The decline in parasitism represents a reduction in an important ecosystem service: enemy control of primary consumers. The consequences of these changes are in many cases irreversible and will likely negatively impact surrounding agriculture. The decline of important tropical taxa and associated ecosystem function underlines the apparent threat to global insect diversity and provides additional impetus for research on tropical diversity.
Diverse mixtures of plant natural products play an important role in plant-herbivore-parasitoid interactions. In the pursuit of understanding these chemically-mediated interactions, we are often faced with the challenge of determining... more
Diverse mixtures of plant natural products play an important role in plant-herbivore-parasitoid interactions. In the pursuit of understanding these chemically-mediated interactions, we are often faced with the challenge of determining ecologically and biologically relevant compounds present in complex phytochemical mixtures. Using a network-based approach, we analyzed binned H-NMR data from 196 prepared mixtures of commonly studied secondary metabolites including alkaloids, amides, terpenes, iridoid glycosides, saponins, phenylpropanoids, flavonoids and phytosterols. The mixtures included multiple dimensions of chemical diversity, including molecular complexity, mixture complexity and differences in relative compound concentrations. This approach yielded modules of co-occurring chemical shifts that were correlated with specific compounds or common structural features shared across compounds. This approach was then applied to crude phytochemical extracts of 31 species in the phytoche...
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The tropical rainforest shrub Piper cenocladum, which is normally defended against herbivores by a mutualistic ant, contains three amides that have various defensive functions. While the ants are effective primarily against specialist... more
The tropical rainforest shrub Piper cenocladum, which is normally defended against herbivores by a mutualistic ant, contains three amides that have various defensive functions. While the ants are effective primarily against specialist herbivores, we hypothesized that these secondary compounds would be effective against a wider range of insects, thus providing a broad array of defenses against herbivores. We also tested