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Host-plants of leaf-miners in Australian subtropical rainforest

Host-plants of leaf-miners in Australian subtropical rainforest
Host-plants of leaf-miners in Australian subtropical rainforest
Leaf-miners are endophytic insect herbivores that are considered to be relatively host-specific compared with other types of insect herbivores, often depending on one or a few congeneric hosts. Because of their degree of host-specificity, they may be particularly vulnerable to environmental change. Despite this, little is known about the host-plants and life histories of the Australian leaf-mining fauna. Here we present new information on the host-plant use of leaf-miners occurring in Australian subtropical rainforest. We repeatedly hand-collected leaf-miners at 14 sampling sites in the ‘Tweed Caldera’ subtropical rainforest region of south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Leaf-miners and their host-plants were identified to species (or morphospecies in the case of some leaf-miners). Within the region, a total of 106 plant species was recorded as leaf-miner hosts, on which a total of 12 679 individual leaf-miners was counted, belonging to 50 different species. We measured the local host-plant range of each leaf-miner species for which we had reliable incidence records across sampling sites (24 species). Local host-specificity was relatively high with 66.7 % of species recorded from a single or two congeneric host-plants. 16.7 % of species were restricted to a single plant family and 16.7 % were recorded on a few to several plants of the same plant order or across a range of unrelated host-plants.
2052-1758
Maunsall, Sarah
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Burwell, Chris
27467d4e-5e0f-4d17-8dcb-9bd6dca829d8
Morris, Rebecca
f63d9be3-e08f-4251-b6a0-43b312d3997e
McDonald, William
d641f931-d4ba-434f-9dd6-c4ed0be1968c
Edwards, Edward
5146b574-9c9b-4c32-bf37-99054ae41cef
Operprieler, R.G.
77d65b88-9c87-4b44-8c3c-40e524ae2d99
Kitching, Roger
0e43a2f3-ac7b-42ba-9145-4d1648f07000
Maunsall, Sarah
b9eb9a05-0980-4474-8ca1-c80aa45380b0
Burwell, Chris
27467d4e-5e0f-4d17-8dcb-9bd6dca829d8
Morris, Rebecca
f63d9be3-e08f-4251-b6a0-43b312d3997e
McDonald, William
d641f931-d4ba-434f-9dd6-c4ed0be1968c
Edwards, Edward
5146b574-9c9b-4c32-bf37-99054ae41cef
Operprieler, R.G.
77d65b88-9c87-4b44-8c3c-40e524ae2d99
Kitching, Roger
0e43a2f3-ac7b-42ba-9145-4d1648f07000

Maunsall, Sarah, Burwell, Chris, Morris, Rebecca, McDonald, William, Edwards, Edward, Operprieler, R.G. and Kitching, Roger (2016) Host-plants of leaf-miners in Australian subtropical rainforest. Austral Entomology. (doi:10.1111/aen.12252).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Leaf-miners are endophytic insect herbivores that are considered to be relatively host-specific compared with other types of insect herbivores, often depending on one or a few congeneric hosts. Because of their degree of host-specificity, they may be particularly vulnerable to environmental change. Despite this, little is known about the host-plants and life histories of the Australian leaf-mining fauna. Here we present new information on the host-plant use of leaf-miners occurring in Australian subtropical rainforest. We repeatedly hand-collected leaf-miners at 14 sampling sites in the ‘Tweed Caldera’ subtropical rainforest region of south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Leaf-miners and their host-plants were identified to species (or morphospecies in the case of some leaf-miners). Within the region, a total of 106 plant species was recorded as leaf-miner hosts, on which a total of 12 679 individual leaf-miners was counted, belonging to 50 different species. We measured the local host-plant range of each leaf-miner species for which we had reliable incidence records across sampling sites (24 species). Local host-specificity was relatively high with 66.7 % of species recorded from a single or two congeneric host-plants. 16.7 % of species were restricted to a single plant family and 16.7 % were recorded on a few to several plants of the same plant order or across a range of unrelated host-plants.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 3 September 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 25 October 2016
Organisations: Biomedicine

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 407751
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/407751
ISSN: 2052-1758
PURE UUID: 7af5e588-c48a-4255-a9f9-29219d429c09
ORCID for Rebecca Morris: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0020-5327

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 25 Apr 2017 01:07
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:29

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Contributors

Author: Sarah Maunsall
Author: Chris Burwell
Author: Rebecca Morris ORCID iD
Author: William McDonald
Author: Edward Edwards
Author: R.G. Operprieler
Author: Roger Kitching

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