Insects on flowers: The unexpectedly high biodiversity of flower-visiting beetles in a tropical rainforest canopy
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منابع مشابه
The Overlooked Biodiversity of Flower-Visiting Invertebrates
Estimates suggest that perhaps 40% of all invertebrate species are found in tropical rainforest canopies. Extrapolations of total diversity and food web analyses have been based almost exclusively on species inhabiting the foliage, under the assumption that foliage samples are representative of the entire canopy. We examined the validity of this assumption by comparing the density of invertebra...
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Insect biodiversity peaks in tropical rainforest environments where a large but as yet unknown proportion of species are found in the canopy. While there has been a proliferation of insect biodiversity research undertaken in the rainforest canopy, most studies focus solely on insects that inhabit the foliage. In a recent paper, we examined the distribution of canopy insects across five microhab...
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There remains great uncertainty about how much tropical forest canopies contribute to global species richness estimates and the relative specialization of insect species to vertical zones. To investigate these issues, we conducted a four-year sampling program in lowland tropical rainforest in North Queensland, Australia. Beetles were sampled using a trap that combines Malaise and flight interce...
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Studies of assemblages of insects that have largely agonistic relationships with plants are rare compared to those that study mutualistic relationships between plants and animals. Flowers have evolved multiple defense mechanisms to protect against nectar-thieving ants, which may decrease plant reproductive success. We evaluated season-specific patterns of biodiversity as well as trophic and tem...
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