Persistent pods of the tree Acacia caven: a natural refuge for diverse insects including Bruchid beetles and the parasitoids Trichogrammatidae, Pteromalidae and Eulophidae

TL;DR

Persistent Acacia caven pods serve as natural refuges for diverse insects, including beetles, parasitoids, and ants, with variations in pod dehiscence affecting insect communities across seasons.

Contribution

This study documents the insect diversity within persistent Acacia caven pods and highlights seasonal differences in pod dehiscence and its impact on insect refuge.

Findings

Persistent pods host diverse insect species including beetles, parasitoids, and ants.

Seasonal variation influences pod dehiscence and insect community composition.

Monoksa dorsiplana exhibits a gregarious reproductive pattern with one son and seven daughters.

Abstract

The persistent pods of the tree, Acacia caven, that do not fall from the tree provide opportunities for the appearance of a diverse group of insects the following season. Such pods collected during the spring of 1999 in Chile were indehiscent with highly sclerified pod walls. In contrast, persistent pods collected in Uruguay after a wet winter and spring (2002) were partially dehiscent, inducing the deterioration of the woody pods, and consequently exposing the seeds. These persistent pods are a natural refuge for insect species, namely two bruchid beetles (Pseudopachymeria spinipes, Stator furcatus), one scolytidae (Dendroctonus sp), lepidopterous larvae, ant colonies (Camponotus sp),one species of oophagous parasitoid (Uscana espinae group senex), the gregarious larval-pupae parasitoid Monoksa dorsiplana (Pteromalidae) and two species of Horismenus spp. (Eulophidae). The patriline of M. dorsiplana is frequently formed by 1 son +7 daughters.