DOI: 10.15468/7cscsa
title: Ecology Of Amblycerus Crassipunctatus Ribeiro-Costa (Coleoptera: Bruchidae) In Seeds Of Humiriaceae, A New Host Family For Bruchids, With An Ecological Comparision To Other Species Of Amblycerus

description: This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Johnson, Clarence Dan, Romero, Jesús, Raimúndez-Urrutia, Elena (2001): Ecology Of Amblycerus Crassipunctatus Ribeiro-Costa (Coleoptera: Bruchidae) In Seeds Of Humiriaceae, A New Host Family For Bruchids, With An Ecological Comparision To Other Species Of Amblycerus. The Coleopterists Bulletin 55 (1): 37-48, DOI: 10.1649/0010-065X(2001)055[0037:EOACRC]2.0.CO;2, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1649/0010-065x(2001)055[0037:eoacrc]2.0.co;2AbstractIn Venezuela Amblycerus crassipunctatus Ribeiro­Costa feeds in seeds of Vantanea minor Bentham, Humiriaceae, a new host family for the Bruchidae. Species of Amblycerus Thunberg now are known to feed in from 11 to 14 families of plants, more than any other bruchid genus. Ecological relationships of A. crassipunctatus with its host were compared to A. nigromarginatus (Motschulsky), A. luteonotatus (Pic), A. dispar (Sharp), A. guazumicola Kingsolver and Johnson, A. vitis (Schaeffer), A. acapulcensis Kingsolver, A. robiniae (Fabricius), A. hoffmanseggi (Gyllenhal), A. testaceus (Pic), A. submaculatus (Pic), A. cistelinus (Gyllenhal), A. longesuturalis (Pic), and A. schwarzi Kingsolver and their hosts. A. crassipunctatus damaged 28.5% to 39% of V. minor fruits examined. In other species of Amblycerus where these figures are available, from 01.0% to 61% of the fruits were damaged. We found that eggs of almost all of the species discussed have a similar flange with glue on the periphery. This kind of attachment may prevent the egg from becoming detached from the fruit as it matures and during eclosion of the first instar larva or protect eggs against mechanical injuries. Larvae of most species of Amblycerus feed in several seeds during their development, but A. dispar and A. vitis feed in only one seed. Apparently almost all species of Amblycerus spin a cocoon for pupation. This was evolved probably because the large size of the adults led to the habit of feeding in several seeds. Most bruchids are much smaller in body size than species of Amblycerus and thus pupate inside a single seed that negates the need for a cocoon.More than 100 species of Amblycerus Thunberg have been described in the New World, but we estimate that more than 100 more will eventually be found and described, especially in Central and South America. Species of Amblycerus feed in seeds of forest trees and shrubs and of ornamental plants. None of the host plants are considered to be major agricultural crops, but when their seeds are destroyed by bruchids, the potential for regeneration of plants in forestry plantings and those used for fuel, honey and ornamental plantings is reduced. Biological and ecological data, however, are scarce for this genus.Most of the research on the genus Amblycerus until about 1970 was limited to taxonomy. Kingsolver (1970, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1991) pioneered the modern­day interest in the systematics of Amblycerus. Recently Kingsolver et al. (1993), Genaro and Kingsolver (1997) and Kingsolver and Ribeiro­Costa (1997) published new species descriptions, etc. Significant revisionary studies were completed recently by Ribeiro­Costa (1995) for Brazil and Romero et al. (1996) for the United States and Mexico. Ribeiro­Costa has published several papers from her thesis.Of greater interest here is that in 1993 Elena Raimúndez­Urrutia found bruchid beetles feeding in the seeds of Vantanea minor Bentham (Humiriaceae), one of the plants in her research on plant ecology (i.e., reproductive efficiency of some plant species and the estimation of the reduction in the number of seeds produced due to the effect of predispersal seed predators; and host specificity of the insects) in the Gran Sabana of Venezuela. Because this species of bruchid was previously undescribed and the host and host family Humiriaceae had never been reported as a host for bruchids, we decided to collect more seeds and study the ecological interactions of the beetle and its host. Cibele S. Ribeiro­Costa (1999), who had earlier discovered the beetle as a new species in Brazil, described the beetle as Amblycerus crassipunctatus Ribeiro­Costa. For her new species description she used specimens from Brazil and from fruits collected in 1998 from the Gran Sabana of Venezuela by Raimúndez­Urrutia.Amblycerus probably has the broadest range of hosts for any genus of bruchids. Species of Amblycerus have reliably been reported to feed in seeds of the Fabaceae, Malpighiaceae, Rhamnaceae, Boraginaceae, Combretaceae, Sterculiaceae, Tiliaceae, Vitaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Anacardiaceae. Reports of feeding in seeds of Verbenaceae, Malvaceae, and Poaceae may be accurate and must be verified. With the addition of Humiriaceae as a host family, there are now 11 verified host families fed upon by species of Amblycerus. Host records for species of Amblycerus are scattered in the entomological literature but many are summarized in Romero et al. (1996). Other sources for hosts are papers discussed here and in Hetz and Johnson (1988), Johnson (1998), Kingsolver (1976, 1980), and Sharp (1885).