Low beta diversity of herbivorous insects in tropical forests

Vojtech Novotny (), Scott E. Miller, Jiri Hulcr, Richard A. I. Drew, Yves Basset, Milan Janda, Gregory P. Setliff, Karolyn Darrow, Alan J. A. Stewart, John Auga, Brus Isua, Kenneth Molem, Markus Manumbor, Elvis Tamtiai, Martin Mogia and George D. Weiblen
Additional contact information
Vojtech Novotny: Biology Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences and School of Biological Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
Scott E. Miller: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20013-7012, USA
Jiri Hulcr: Biology Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences and School of Biological Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
Richard A. I. Drew: Australian School of Environmental Studies, Griffith University, Nathan Campus, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia
Yves Basset: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancon, Panama
Milan Janda: Biology Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences and School of Biological Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
Gregory P. Setliff: University of Minnesota, 219 Hodson Hall, 1980 Folwell Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA
Karolyn Darrow: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20013-7012, USA
Alan J. A. Stewart: School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK
John Auga: New Guinea Binatang Research Center, PO Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea
Brus Isua: New Guinea Binatang Research Center, PO Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea
Kenneth Molem: New Guinea Binatang Research Center, PO Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea
Markus Manumbor: New Guinea Binatang Research Center, PO Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea
Elvis Tamtiai: New Guinea Binatang Research Center, PO Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea
Martin Mogia: New Guinea Binatang Research Center, PO Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea
George D. Weiblen: University of Minnesota, 250 Biological Sciences Center, 1445 Gortner Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108-1095, USA

Nature, 2007, vol. 448, issue 7154, 692-695

Abstract: Insects everywhere Insects are a major force in most ecosystems, yet in studies of biodiversity they often receive less attention than birds, mammals and plants. Two papers this week redress the balance. Novotny et al. studied some 500 species of lepidopteran caterpillars, beetles and fruit flies across 75,000 km2 of rain forest in Papua New Guinea. They found that most species of herbivorous insects were widely distributed. Species richness was high, as expected in the tropics, but the species found did not alter much even over hundreds of kilometres. Dyer et al. reached rather different conclusions from their work on hundreds of thousands of host-specificity feeding records for butterfly and moth caterpillars from areas ranging from Canada to Brazil. They found that the average number of tree species on which an insect species feeds was fewer in the tropics than in temperate parts of the New World, a confirmation of the latitudinal gradient in ecological specialization much discussed by biologists since the time of Darwin and Wallace. With apparently contradictory results such as these two reports, though, the discussion may run and run.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1038/nature06021

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