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Galling Insects as Indicators of Habitat Quality

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Neotropical Insect Galls

Abstract

Galling insects present many interesting features that make them good candidates for bioindication, such as their sessile habit, host specificity, conspicuousness and abundance. In this chapter we summarize some of the studies performed in the Neotropics that have used galling insects as indicators of habitat quality. These studies have mostly investigated forest fragmentation and the edge effect on the gall community, while few use galling insects as indicators to evaluate restoration success, and lesser the effects of urbanization. There is a tendency for the increased use of galling insects and their galls as indicators of habitat health and environmental impact as they seem to be highly tuned with habitat properties and are easily sampled. Thereby, it is urgently needed to detail such studies by the inclusion of information on the effects of disturbance on the galling insect population performance and fitness.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Tiago Shizen Toma

  2. Ecologia Evolutiva & Biodiversidade/DBG, ICB/Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 30161 970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

    Geraldo Wilson Fernandes

  3. Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil

    Danielle Gomes de Souza & Marcelo Tabarelli

  4. Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Campus Umuarama, Bloco 2D, Rua Ceará s/n Umuarama, Caixa-Postal: 593, 38400-902, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil

    Jean Carlos Santos

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  1. Tiago Shizen Toma
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  2. Geraldo Wilson Fernandes
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  3. Danielle Gomes de Souza
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  4. Marcelo Tabarelli
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  5. Jean Carlos Santos
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Correspondence to Tiago Shizen Toma .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ecologia Evolutiva & Biodiversidade/DBG, ICB/Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Geraldo Wilson Fernandes

  2. Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Jean Carlos Santos

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Toma, T.S., Fernandes, G.W., de Souza, D.G., Tabarelli, M., Santos, J.C. (2014). Galling Insects as Indicators of Habitat Quality. In: Fernandes, G., Santos, J. (eds) Neotropical Insect Galls. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8783-3_9

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