Abstract
Many arthropods modify parts of plants through the construction of domiciles or by consuming plant tissues that, after abandoned, can be used as shelter by other arthropods in a facilitating interaction process. We examined, for the first time, the potential of leaf-rolling mites to indirectly influence arthropod communities in natural forests by providing shelter sites. In early June 2019, we found a high density of leaves of Amphitecna tuxtlensis (Bignoniaceae) rolled by an undetermined leaf-rolling mite species in a tropical rainforest, in Mexico. We tested whether the species richness, abundance, and colonization frequency of arthropods was greater in rolled compared with expanded leaves. We collected 5 rolled leaves and 5 fully expanded leaves from 15 A. tuxtlensis trees (N = 150 sampled leaves) and recorded all arthropods on each leaf. We recorded 1421 arthropods from 67 unique morphospecies. We found 39 individuals from 23 morphospecies of arthropods in expanded leaves, and 1382 individuals from 56 morphospecies in rolled leaves. Ants were the most abundant and frequent group and utilized the rolled leaves mainly as nesting sites; 1260 ant individuals were found in 30 nests from three species. Arthropod species richness, abundance, and colonization frequency were greater in rolled leaves compared with expanded leaves. We concluded that the ecosystem engineering effect of leaf-rolling mites may be an important structuring element for arthropod communities on plants through an increase of high quality food resources and shelter sites for other arthropods, as well as nesting sites for ants.
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Acknowledgments
We thank K. Rodríguez-Hernández for help in the field, and Dora Luz Martínez Tlapa (INECOL) for the identification of the ant species. Special thanks to Rosamond Ione Coates, head of the Biological Station Los Tuxtlas-UNAM for her support and provision of facilities to conduct this research.
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This study was supported by grants from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (PAPIIT # IN212714-3), CONACyT (# 2009-131008 and # 155016) and CONACYT-UNAM-UAGro to LANASE (2015-LN250996, 2016-LN271449 and 2017-LN280505).
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SN, VHO, MQ, and AAJ designed study. SN, VHO, and AAJ conducted study. SN analyzed the data and wrote the paper. VHO, MQ, and AAJ reviewed and edited the paper.
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Novais, S., Aguirre-Jaimes, A., Quesada, M. et al. Ecosystem engineering by leaf-rolling mites enhances arthropod diversity. Sci Nat 107, 45 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01702-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01702-0