SPECIES COMPOSITION OF ROOT-FEEDING MACROARTHROPODS IN A SUBALPINE GRASSLAND ASSOCIATED WITH PINE FOREST IN MEXICO
- 1 February 1997
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in The Canadian Entomologist
- Vol. 129 (1) , 71-80
- https://doi.org/10.4039/ent12971-1
Abstract
Below-ground herbivores have been poorly studied regardless of their importance for the establishment and composition of plant communities. In a subalpine grassland associated with a 3200-m-elevation pine forest in central Mexico, the composition and vertical and horizontal distribution of the macroarthropod root-feeding community was studied for 14 months. The root-feeding community included six species of Coleoptera and one species of Diptera. The dominant species werePhyllophagaspp. (subgenusPhytallus, "macrophylla" group) andTrachyploeomimusaff.spurcusChampion. Mean density and biomass of this community were 101 individuals and 3 g per square metre, respectively. These values were low when compared with those reported for other communities. Species were most abundant in the first 10 cm of the soil all year around. Dominant species showed a clumped horizontal distribution most of the year.Keywords
This publication has 25 references indexed in Scilit:
- Differential Effects of Above- and Below-Ground Insect Herbivory during Early Plant SuccessionOikos, 1989
- Maximization of Densities of Soil Animals by Foliage Herbivory: Empirical Evidence, Graphical and Conceptual ModelsOikos, 1988
- POPILLIA JAPONICA (COLEOPTERA: SCARABAEIDAE): DISTRIBUTION AND MOVEMENT OF ADULTS IN HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENTSThe Canadian Entomologist, 1983
- ECOLOGY OF BLACK BEETLE HETERONYCHUS ARATOR, INFLUENCE OF PLANT SPECIES ON LARVAL CONSUMPTION, UTILIZATION AND GROWTHEntomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, 1981
- Biology of ScarabaeidaeAnnual Review of Entomology, 1958
- The Arthropoda of the Soil in a West African PastureJournal of Animal Ecology, 1956
- The Arthropod Population of Pasture SoilJournal of Animal Ecology, 1948
- The Animal Population of a Meadow Near OxfordJournal of Animal Ecology, 1935
- Populations of White Grubs in Pastures with Relation to the EnvironmentEcology, 1932
- Insect Injury of Blue Grass in Relation to the EnvironmentEcology, 1931