Keywords
phytophagous insects
tropical rain forests
leaves
forest insects
infestation
fores ecology
biomass
species diversity
skewed distribution
How to Cite
Abstract
Local patterns of leaf damage for ten tree species of different plant families and of different successional status were examined at Wau, Papua New Guinea. Damage to mature leaves was expressed as apparent percentage area lost in leaf samples (ALD, apparent leaf damage, visual estimations), area removed per leaf (ARL) and biomass removed per leaf (BRL). Leaf damage varied greatly among species, from 3.8 to 19.7% for ALD, from 5.7 to 28.9 cm² for ARL, and from 0.05 to 0.50 g dry weight of BRL. However, leaf damage was difficult to predict from either insect-related variables (species richness, abundance, biomass and specialization of associated herbivores; enemy-free space) or host-related variables (taxonomie relatedness, tree architecture, water and nitrogen content of leaves, etc.). In particular, trees with species-rich herbivore faunas or with high herbivore densities were not always likely to experience high damage. Contrary to expectations, leaf palatability, successional status or leaf production patterns did not clearly influence leaf damage. The skewness of damage distribution appeared to be weakly correlated with leaf size. This observation was tentatively interpreted as the result of a particular adaptive foraging and feeding behaviour of insect herbivores on large-leaved trees in order to escape avian predators. We conclude that leaf damage is likely to depend on the feeding behavior of a few dominant leaf-chewing insect species and this may complicate the interpretation of results obtained in studies of herbivory seeking community-level patterns. These results point out that the biological interpretation of measurements of apparent leaf damage may not be straightforward.
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