Patterns of intra‐ and interspecific association in leaf‐mining insects on three oak host species

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Abstract
1. We determined mortality and distributional patterns of leaf miners on three oak host species (Quercus falcata, Q.nigra and Q.hemisphaerica) in northern Florida, U.S.A.2. Patterns of intra‐ and interspecific occurrence within leaves, and mortality of five most abundant leaf miner species were analysed as a test of competition.3. Miners co‐occurred on leaves more often that expected by chance (P<0.05) in six of ten possible species combinations and log‐linear model analysis showed no negative higher‐order interactions.4. All five miner species had highly clumped distributions between leaves (P<0.01).5. Leaf miner survival was less than expected for four of five species when co‐occurring on leaves with conspecifics than when mining with heterospecifics or alone (P<0.05).6. We conclude that interspecific competition is unapparent within this leaf miner guild and that intraspecific competition occurs in four of the five major leaf miner species. We discuss leaf miner selection of common leaves, perhaps based on chemical/physical leaf characters, as a cause of intra‐ and interspecific aggregation.