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Does leaf ontogeny lead to changes in defensive strategies against insect herbivores?

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Abstract

Plants use different defense strategies throughout their ontogenetic development. In this study, three questions were proposed: (1) Is there a greater abundance of ants on young leaves, which possess active extrafloral nectaries, than on mature leaves? (2) Do ants exert an indirect defense that is effective against the attack of herbivorous insects? (3) Do mature leaves have a greater concentration of physical and chemical defense than young leaves? These questions were addressed through an ant-exclusion experiment in which two branches of Copaifera langsdorffii (n = 25) were marked and monitored throughout the entire foliar expansion and development period. A reduction in the abundance of ants throughout foliar development was observed. The ants exerted an effective defense against herbivores on C. langsdorffii: the branches where ants were excluded had a greater number of herbivores. The mature leaves possessed a greater index of leaf sclerophylly than young leaves, but the leaves did not differ in the concentration of tannins. The foliar ontogeny of C. langsdorffii promoted an inversion in the defense strategy against herbivores, and despite showing an opportunistic relationship, the interaction between ants and extrafloral nectaries appears to play an important role in structuring the interactions between herbivorous insects and their host plants.

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Acknowledgments

We thank MLB Maia and LQ Oliveira for help with the field studies. We thank to FB Baccaro for useful comments in previous versions of this manuscript. This study received financial support from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) (APQ-01231-09).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Ecologia de Formigas, Departamento de Biologia, Setor de Ecologia e Conservação, Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras, MG, Brazil

    Antônio César Medeiros de Queiroz

  2. Coordenação de Pesquisas em Ecologia, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa da Amazônia, INPA, Manaus, AM, Brazil

    Fernanda Vieira da Costa

  3. Laboratório de Ecologia de Insetos, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas (ICB), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Frederico de Siqueira Neves

  4. Laboratório de Biologia da Conservação, Departamento de Biologia Geral, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros, Montes Claros, MG, Brazil

    Marcílio Fagundes

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  1. Antônio César Medeiros de Queiroz
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  2. Fernanda Vieira da Costa
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  3. Frederico de Siqueira Neves
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Correspondence to Frederico de Siqueira Neves.

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de Queiroz, A.C.M., da Costa, F.V., de Siqueira Neves, F. et al. Does leaf ontogeny lead to changes in defensive strategies against insect herbivores?. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 7, 99–107 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-012-9224-1

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