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The structure of ground beetle assemblages (Coleoptera: Carabidae) at fig fruit falls (Moraceae) in a terra firme rain forest near Manaus (Brazil)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2001

WILFRIED PAARMANN
Affiliation:
Fachhochschule Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen, Fachbereich Forstwirtschaft und Umweltmanagement, Büsgenweg 1A, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
JOACHIM ADIS
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Limnologie, AG Tropenökologie, Postfach 165, D-24302 Plön, Germany
NIGEL STORK
Affiliation:
Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Rainforest Ecology and Management, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns QLD 4870, Australia
BURKHARD GUTZMANN
Affiliation:
Fachhochschule Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen, Fachbereich Forstwirtschaft und Umweltmanagement, Büsgenweg 1A, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
PHILIPP STUMPE
Affiliation:
Fachhochschule Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen, Fachbereich Forstwirtschaft und Umweltmanagement, Büsgenweg 1A, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
BERT STARITZ
Affiliation:
Fachhochschule Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen, Fachbereich Forstwirtschaft und Umweltmanagement, Büsgenweg 1A, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
HUBERTUS BOLTE
Affiliation:
Fachhochschule Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen, Fachbereich Forstwirtschaft und Umweltmanagement, Büsgenweg 1A, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
STEFFEN KÜPPERS
Affiliation:
Fachhochschule Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen, Fachbereich Forstwirtschaft und Umweltmanagement, Büsgenweg 1A, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
KARSTEN HOLZKAMP
Affiliation:
Fachhochschule Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen, Fachbereich Forstwirtschaft und Umweltmanagement, Büsgenweg 1A, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
CLEMENS NIERS
Affiliation:
Fachhochschule Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen, Fachbereich Forstwirtschaft und Umweltmanagement, Büsgenweg 1A, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
CLAUDIO R. V. DA FONSECA
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia (INPA), CPEN, Caixa Postal 478, 69011-970 Manaus AM, Brazil

Abstract

The carabid beetle assemblage found feeding on fig fruit falls at night was studied in a terra firme rain forest near Manaus (Amazonia) from July 1991 to August 1996. A total of 8926 carabid beetles were collected on 64 fruit falls from 10 fig species. The most abundant genus was Notiobia with eight species, N. pseudolimbipennis being the most abundant. The Notiobia species comprised 92% of all specimens collected and all feed on small fig seeds. Their species abundance patterns varied considerably between individual fruit falls and during the course of a single fruit fall. However, the species abundance patterns for all Notiobia at all observed fruit falls for each of the two commonest fig species (Ficus subapiculata, F. guianensis), as well as for fruit falls of the remaining fig species, were very similar. Through feeding and breeding experiments and observations of reproductive success by dissection of females, only two of the eight Notiobia species were found to be specialized fig seed feeders, being able to reproduce only on fig fruit falls. The remaining six species of this genus use fig fruit falls as alternate hosts or ‘stepping stones’ between fruit falls of their host trees, which are widely separated both in time and space.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2001 Cambridge University Press

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