Estudos sistemáticos e comportamentais e coleoptera (tenebrionidae) em galerias do fuste de montrichardia linifera (araceae)

Abstract

The process of co-evolution between arthropods and plants has grown a lot during millions of years, as an example of this we find Montrichardia linifera (Aninga) a species of transition between aquatic and terrestrial plants, having a neotropical distribution, inhabiting hydromorphic alluvial soils recently deposited in the Amazonian estuary floodplains. This work aimed to identify the beetle species, making observations about reproduction, colonization and foraging, trying to show the interactions between coleoptera/other insects/coleoptera/plant. The material was collected in two different areas: the floodplain region of the estuary near Belém (Mocambo) and the floodplain and igapó region of the Caxiuanã basin (350 km west of Belém). Belém). We collected sprouted parts of the plant, cutting some of them at the water level and others below the water level, and placed them all in plastic bags. In the laboratory the total height and the size of the galleries were noted, and then the insects were sorted and counted. It was observed that the two collected areas had the same occurrence and association between the insects, among which the main ones of the Tenebrionidae family (Coleoptera) of the species Tribolium sp. and Hypogena sp. stand out because they have specialized mouthparts (chewing and grinding), which were biting the stem of M. linifera, in the longitudinal direction near the cuticle where the females lay their eggs from which the larvae are born. These larvae are housed and protected against predators because they can camouflage themselves by staying on the fiber strings until the adult insect arrives and leaves. The preliminary conclusion is that these coleopterans have acquired strategic survival mechanisms within the plant, since these species are voraciously attacked mainly by the ants that live there.