Resumen de Are Laguncularia racemosa galled leaves less attractive to chewing herbivores?
Isabela Vieira Santos-Mendonça, Julio Marcelino Monteiro, José Roberto Botelho Sousa, Jarcilene S. Almeida-Cortez
Evolutionary interactions between herbivores and plants have resulted in an impressive variety of adaptations, and herbivory pressure has led to the evolution of chemical, mechanical and phenological defense in plants. Coastal mangrove forests provide a very tractable system in which to study the dynamics of herbivory. The objective of this work was to evaluate if galled leaves of the mangrove tree Laguncularia racemosa (L.) Gaerten (Combretaceae) are less consumed by chewing insects. Monthly excursions were carried to the Maracaípe Mangrove in Pernambuco, to collect adult leaves from 60 plants of L.
racemosa: 240 ungalled leaves consumed by chewing insects (CL), 240 galled leaves consumed by chewing insects (CLG) and 240 galled leaves not consumed by chewing herbivores (LG). Other leaves were collected in August, in order to quantify total phenolic concentration: 40 intact leaves of individuals with low rate of infestation by galls (LL) and 40 of individuals with high infestation (HL) were thus collected. CLG displayed a lesser loss of foliar area to chewing herbivores. The results show a signi. cant amount of phenols in HL (35.63 mg) and LG (32.7 mg). This high phenol concentration is probably repelling chewing phytophagous. It is known that herbivores tend to avoid leaves that were previously predated by another herbivore. Possibly galls are in. uencing the feeding performance of the chewing insects.
