Native Plants In Experimental Urban Green Roofs Sustain More Diverse Communities Of Hemiptera Than Exotics

FENOGLIO, MARÍA SILVINA; TAVELLA, JULIA; BECCACECE, H; MORENO, ML; SALVO, ADRIANA; FABIÁN, DIEGO; ESTALLO, E; CALVIÑO, ANA

Encuentro; Entomology Virtual Annual Meeting Entomological Society of America.; 2020

Greenroofs could promote insect biodiversity conservation in cities, butthe effects of roof vegetation originon insect communities are stillpoorly understood. We experimentally evaluated the effect of nativeandexotic plant species on the species richness, abundance,diversity, and composition of the mega diverseorder Hemiptera, alongan urbanization gradient. We installed, in each of 30 houses ofCórdoba city,Argentina, two blocks of a modular extensive green roofsystem (3m each), with either native or exotic plantspecies (6species each). In March 2019 we used pan yellow traps to sampleinsects in each block, whereasthe level of urbanization of each housewas estimated by NDVI in a 400m buffer. We registered a total of1725individuals belonging to 68 species from 20 taxonomic families, beingSternorrhyncha the mostabundant and diverse suborder. Speciesrichness, abundance and diversity of total insects weresignificantlyhigher in native than exotic plants. The communitycomposition of Hemiptera was also affected by plantorigin. Oriusinsidiosus, the dominant predator species, had a higher probabilityof occurrence in nativeplants. On the other hand, insect abundancedecreases with higher NDVI, irrespective of plants´ origin.Our results highlight the relevance of using native plant species ingreen roofs to enhance Hemiptera speciesdiversity, which were mainlyherbivores, in order to promote plant diversity and sustain naturalenemies. However, further analyses are needed to confirm if these newhabitats could generate disservices sinceseveral species arepotential urban pests.