Benedito Baptista dos Santos

Ocorrência e caracterização de galhas entomógenas em uma área de floresta estacional semidecídua em Goiânia, Goiás, Brasil

In an area of seasonal semideciduous forest situated on Campus Samambaia of the Universidade Federal de Goias in Goiânia, Goias 34 types of insect galls were collected during the period 2005-2007. The galls occurred in 20 species of plants from 12 families, with Leguminosae (9), Styracaceae (6) and Ulmaceae (4) having the greatest number of gall morphotypes. Leaf and stem galls were the most widespread. Concerning gall morphology, the following were collected: globoid, discoidal, ellipsoidal, cylindrical and conical. The colour varied from green to yellow, brown and red. The galls were isolated or grouped and glabrous or pilose. The principal inducers were Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) and the parasitoids found were of the families Eulophidae, Torymidae, Pteromalidae, Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera). This is the first report of galls in four species of host plants for the Neotropical region.

Efeitos da sazonalidade e do tamanho da planta hospedeira na abundância de galhas de Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) em Piper arboreum (Piperaceae)

The objective of this work was to verify the effects of seasonality and the size of host plants on occurrence of Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) galls on Piper arboreum (Piperaceae). This study was carried out monthly, from September, 2006 to August, 2007, in a remnant area of Semidecidual Forest in Goiânia, Goias, Brazil. In each survey, 10 individuals of the host plant were chosen randomly, and the height, the total number of leaves, the number of leaves with galls and the number of galls per leaves were estimated. The abundance of galls varied significantly during the study period, being the greatest abundance found at the beginning of the rainy season. The height of the host plant and number of leaves per individual were also positively and significantly related to the abundance of galls, since larger plants offer greater availability of resources and sites of breeding. The results of this study suggest that the seasonality may be decisive in the abundance of galls as well as the architectural patterns of the host plant. The seasonal changes can directly influence the development of the host plant and thus alter the quantity and quality of nutrients offered to insects galling.

Host plants of insect-induced galls in areas of cerrado in the state of Goiás, Brazil

Most studies of the interactions between plants and gall-inducing (galling) insects have focused on the entomological aspects, few having addressed the diversity of galls in relation to the characteristics of the host plants. The objective of this study was to analyze the richness and composition of the community of host plants of galls in areas of cerrado (savanna) in the state of Goias, Brazil. To that end, we inventoried the galls in different regions of the state and within various types of vegetation formations, between 2005 and 2007. We registered 80 gall morphotypes in 58 species of host plants (30 families and 47 genera). The host family with highest diversity of galls was Fabaceae, with 17 morphotypes, followed by Styracaceae, with seven. In the cerrado, Fabaceae is the plant family with the highest number of species. Our results show that the composition of a plant community is a determinant of the distribution of galling insects. At the family or genus level, the presence of certain taxa increases the species richness of the population of galling insects.

Checklist of host plants of insect galls in the state of Goiás in the Midwest Region of Brazil

Abstract Background Surveys of host plants of insect galls have been performed in different regions of Brazil. The knowledge of species of host plants of insect galls is fundamental to further studies of plant-galling insect interactions. However, a list of host plant species of gall-inducing insects has not yet been compiled for the flora of the Midwest Region of Brazil. New information We provide a compilation of the plant species reported to host insect galls in the Cerrado of the state of Goiás in the Midwest Region of Brazil. Altogether we found records for 181 species of 47 families of host plants, which hosted 365 distinct gall morphotypes.

Galling Insects in the Brazilian Cerrado: Ecological Patterns and Perspectives

In recent decades, there has been growing research interest in insect galls. Most of the processes and mechanisms related to ecological richness of galling insect-plant interactions have been investigated in the Cerrado. Therefore, several ecological hypotheses and patterns have been described in Cerrado. In this chapter we discuss: (a) a historical overview of studies with focus on insect galls from the Cerrado highlighting key studies and ecological issues; (b) galling insect richness and host plants, emphasizing especially the most representative taxa; (c) studies that have investigated the differential gall distribution between mesic and xeric environments, one of the most established and tested ecological hypotheses in the Cerrado; and finally (d) the main challenges and perspectives for future studies investigating patterns of galling insect richness in the Cerrado. We showed some mechanisms that are responsible by the high galling diversity in the Cerrado and discuss the main ecological hypothesis that explain these mechanisms.

Flutuação populacional de espécies de Chrysomya Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera, Calliphoridae) em pomar de Goiânia, Goiás, Brasil

Three species of Chrysomya were collected and the most frequent were: C. albiceps (Wiedemann, 1819) (62,62%), C. putoria (Wiedeman, 1818) (30,11%) and C. megacephala (Fabricius, 1794) (7,27%). The peaks of the populations of these species occurred in November and December/1988 and October and November/1989, and the small frequencies occurred from April to June/1989. All species showed significant correlation to 5% level with pluviometric precipitation, and none species showed correlation with temperature and relative humidity.

Insect gall occurrence in savanna and forest remnant sites of Hidrolândia, GO, Brazil Central

In this study we perform an inventory of the insect galls in savanna and forest sites of Hidrolândia, Goias, Brazil. We found 150 insect gall morphotypes, distributed on 39 botanical families and 104 plant species. Among the insect galls, 81 gall morphotypes were recorded in the savanna site and 73 in the forest site. The plant taxa richest in insect galls were the family Fabaceae with 22 gall morphotypes, the genus Bauhinia (Fabaceae) with 15, and the species Siparuna guianensis (Siparunaceae) with seven gall morphotypes. We found gall-inducing insects belonging to orders Diptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Thysanoptera. The galling insects of family Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) were the most common inducing 48.1% of the gall morphotypes. This is the first systematic survey of insect galls realized in the city of Hidrolândia, being this the site with the higher insect gall diversity already cataloged to the Central region of Brazil.