Forest remnants contribute to parasitoid conservation: experimental evaluation of parasitism on a leafminer host

ROSETTI MARIA ROSA; SALVO ADRIANA; VIDELA MARTIN; VALLADARES GRACIELA

JOURNAL OF INSECT CONSERVATION

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2013 vol. 17 p. 1137 - 1144

1366-638X

Worldwide,  intense  forest  fragmentation  hasresulted in mosaic landscapes in which biodiversity and anumber of important ecological processes are threatened.Insect parasitism is a vital component of herbivore popu-lation regulation, hence the study of parasitism and para-sitoid  richness  in  fragmented  forests  embedded  in  anagricultural   matrix   is   relevant   from   conservation   andmanagement  perspectives.  Here,  we  investigated  throughexperimental  field  exposure  of  the  leafminer  Liriomyzacommelinae (Diptera: Agromyzidae) the effects of forestremnant  size  and  edge/interior  location  on  parasitism,species  richness  and  parasitoid  community  composition.Two  consecutive  experiments  were  performed  in  whichpots with mined plants were placed in remnants of ChacoSerrano forests in Central Argentina. Parasitism levels (onaverage above 50 %) and number of parasitoids species (intotal, 20 species) were independent of forest remnant size.However,  higher  parasitism  and  species  richness  werefound   at  the   forest   edge   compared  with   the  interioralthough the differences in species richness failed to reachstatistical significance. Parasitoid community compositionwas not related to forest size whereas assemblages frominterior habitats showed closer similarity than those fromthe edges. The results suggest forest remnants could playan important role as reservoirs of parasitoids with potentialto  control  crop  pests,  a  possibility  heightened  by  thepositive edge effects which could facilitate the transfer of thisvaluable ecosystem service to the adjacent cultivatedland.