Niche width and niche specialization in four species of ladybirds (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) co-occurring in the same habitat

Title:

Niche width and niche specialization in four species of ladybirds (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) co-occurring in the same habitat

Creator:

Godeau, Jean-François, Ceryngier, Piotr , and Hemptinne, Jean-Louis

Identifier:

https://cdk.lib.cas.cz/client/handle/uuid:51513b21-487f-4ffc-8159-f2faa52dcddb
uuid:51513b21-487f-4ffc-8159-f2faa52dcddb
doi:10.14411/eje.2019.019

Subject:

Coccinellidae, Calvia decemguttata, Calvia quatuordecimguttata, Calvia quindecimguttata, Sospita vigintiguttata, diet, frass analysis, food niche, and individual specialization

Type:

model:article and TEXT

Format:

počítač and online zdroj

Description:

We investigated food niches, diet diversity and individual food specialization of the larvae and adults of four species of ladybirds, Sospita vigintiguttata (L.), Calvia quindecimguttata (F.), C. quatuordecimguttata (L.) and C. decemguttata (L.), co-occurring in European alder carr forests. The first two species are considered to be strict habitat specialists associated with alders (Alnus spp.) in marshy forests and the other two are less habitat-specialized, inhabiting various deciduous trees and shrubs. Our investigations were based on the analysis of food remains in frass produced by field-collected ladybirds. In each of the species studied, adults had more diversified diets than larvae based on Levins' D index of diversity. The most diverse diet recorded for adults was that for S. vigintiguttata followed by C. quatuordecimguttata, C. quindecimguttata and C. decemguttata. The diversity of larval diet was higher for the habitat specialists, C. quindecimguttata and S. vigintiguttata, than for the more habitat-generalists Calvia decemguttata and C. quatuordecimguttata. Although the main type of prey recorded for both adults and larvae of each of the species studied was aphids, other types of prey made up a relatively high part of the diet of different species/stage combinations. Psylla alni (L.), for example, was frequently recorded in the frass of adults and larvae of S. vigintiguttata and of adults of C. quatuordecimguttata and chrysomelid larvae commonly in the frass of adults and larvae of C. quindecimguttata. Quite a high proportion of the frass of all the species studied contained the remains of Psocodea. The niche width of adults was broader than that of larvae except in C. quindecimguttata in which it was the opposite. The larval niches of the strict habitat specialists, C. quindecimguttata and S. vigintiguttata, were broader than those of the less habitat-specialists C. decemguttata and C. quatuordecimguttata. Adults of all the species studied showed relatively higher levels of food specialization than larvae, except for C. quindecimguttata. The results of this study indicate that ecological specialization is a complex phenomenon and habitat specialization does not imply food specialization.

Language:

English

Rights:

http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
policy:public

Coverage:

178-186

Source:

European Journal of Entomology | 2019 Volume:116 | Number:1

Harvested from:

CDK

Metadata only:

false