Two patterns of pre-dispersal seed predation by insects on Central American deciduous forest trees

The ecology and possible evolutionary biology of insects that prey on maturing seeds and those that prey on seeds at the time of dispersal from woody plants in a Costa Rican lowland deciduous forest are discussed. In the habitat are at least 88 bruchids, 8 weevils and 2 cerambycids that feed on seeds, and 79 of the bruchids, 5 of the weevils, and both cerambycids normally complete development and emerge from the seed before the seed is dispersed. It is postulated that the rapid emergence from the seed in largely adaptive in avoiding being eaten by a dispersal agent; it means that the free-living adult beetle must then survive for nearly a year before it can reproduce on the next seed crop. It is argued that the life history of the seed predator selects for the behaviour by the tree of producing either a large seed crop or none at all, and, in fact, regularly skipping fruiting years as an escape strategy. Most of the seed predators discussed have only one species of host plant and this host specificity may be produced as much by the necessity to specialize to cross the varrier of the green fruit as by the chemical traits of the seed that is being eaten. On a contemporary time scale, most of the pre-dispersal seed predators are not competing with dispersal agents for seeds but a number of dire consequences can be recognized for both the seed predator and the tree if a mutant of either results in direct competition between these two groups of animals

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	122128 Styles, B.T., 39486 (eds.), Jazen, D.H. 80498, 52037 Burley, J.
Format:	biblioteca
Published:	London (RU), Academic Press, 1976
Subjects:	ECOLOGIA VEGETAL, SEMILLAS, COSTA RICA,
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