Abstract

MEDIANERO, Enrique; VALDERRAMA, Anayansi  and  BARRIOS, Héctor. Diversidad de insectos minadores de hojas y formadores de agallas en el dosel y sotobosque del bosque tropical. Acta Zool. Mex [online]. 2003, n.89, pp.153-168. ISSN 2448-8445.

To estimating in which layer of the tropical forest occurs the highest diversity of species of insect gall-makers and leaf miners, a survey was performed from March 1997 to May 1998 in two forests of the Republic of Panama (Parque Natural Metropolitano and Fuerte Sherman). Our results indicate that the canopy of tropical forest supports a higher species richness of insect gall-maker and leaf miners than the understorey. The proportion of species of both of these groups in the canopy and understorey is 2:1, respectively. The Fisher index alpha indicates that both groups of insects are more diverse in the canopy that in the understorey, the canopy of Fuerte Sherman being where the highest abundance of some morphospecies occurs.

Keywords : canopy; diversity; gall-maker; leaf-miner; Panama; species richness; understorey.

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