Log in

Editor's Picks

Group by Sequoiadendron giganteum
From Davis to Los Angeles
Chris Reynolds | Oct 30, 2024
Group photo at Otay Mountains
From Los Angeles to the Otay Mountains
John Leszczynski | Oct 30, 2024
Quercus boyntonii Conservation Plan
Partners at The Morton Arboretum, in collaboration with...
Website Editor | Oct 29, 2024

Plant Focus

Quercus dumosa acorn
Animals, plants, and fungi depend on this humble tree, but its future—and theirs—is all but certain.

Insect Herbivores on Urban Native Oak Trees

PDF icon Log in or register to access the full text.

Ian S. Pearse

Published May 2019 in International Oaks No. 30: 101–108

Abstract

Oak trees host an amazing diversity of insects, many of which specialize on Quercus species. Oak species and genotypes are commonly planted far from where an acorn was produced. Urban plantings, restoration sites, and plantings anticipating climate change each cause this to happen. What evidence exists that provenance of oak plantings affects herbivores such as galls and leaf miners? And what other factors, such as weather, predators, urban forestry, and geographic isolation affect the populations of these insects? I present evidence from studies of oaks conducted at different scales. Provenance matters to herbivores – but predominantly at large genetic scales. Aspects of the urban environment can help some herbivores of oak trees but hurt others. Predators are of key importance to populations of gall wasps and leaf miners, and isolated trees can maintain a great diversity of galls and miners. Creating habitat for oak herbivores (at least the ones that do not kill trees) can be a great benefit of planting native oaks, and many of those insects are nearly as charismatic as their host trees!

Keywords

herbivores, gall wasps, Cynipidae, leaf miners, urban trees

References

Airola, D. 2019. Value of Native Oaks to Birds in the Urban Forest of California’s Central Valley. International Oaks 30: 109-116

Boecklen, W.J., and R. Spellenberg. 1990. Structure of herbivore communities in 2 oak (Quercus spp.) hybrid zones. Oecologia 85: 92-100.

Cavender-Bares, J. 2018. Diversification, adaptation, and community assembly of the American oaks (Quercus), a model clade for integrating ecology and evolution. New Phytologist https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/nph.15450

Crawley, M.J. 1985. Reduction of Oak Fecundity by Low-Density Herbivore Populations. Nature 314: 163-164.

Dale, A.G., and S.D. Frank. 2014. Urban warming trumps natural enemy regulation of herbivorous pests. Ecological Applications 24: 1596-1607.

Egan, S.P., and J.R. Ott. 2007. Host plant quality and local adaptation determine the distribution of a gall-forming herbivore. Ecology 88: 2868-2879.

Faeth, S.H., C. Bang, and S. Saari. 2011. Urban biodiversity: patterns and mechanisms. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1223: 69-81.

Fonseca, C.R. 2009. The silent mass extinction of insect herbivores in biodiversity hotspots. Conservation Biology 23: 1507-1515.

Herrmann, D.L., I.S. Pearse, and J.H. Baty. 2012. Drivers of specialist herbivore diversity across 10 cities. Landscape and urban planning 108: 123-130.

Marquis, R.J., and C. Whelan. 1996. Plant morphology and recruitment of the third trophic level: subtle and little-recognized defenses? Oikos 75: 330–334.

McKinney, M.L. 2002. Urbanization, Biodiversity, and Conservation. The impacts of urbanization on native species are poorly studied, but educating a highly urbanized human population about these impacts can greatly improve species conservation in all ecosystems. Bioscience 52: 883-890.

Meineke, E.K., R.R. Dunn, J.O. Sexton, and S.D. Frank. 2013. Urban warming drives insect pest abundance on street trees. PloS one 8: e59687.

Møller, A.P. 2009. Successful city dwellers: a comparative study of the ecological characteristics of urban birds in the Western Palearctic. Oecologia 159: 849-858.

Moorehead, J.R., M.L. Taper, and T.J. Case. 1993. Utilization of hybrid oak hosts by a monophagous gall wasp - How little host character is sufficient. Oecologia 95: 385-392.

Moreira, X., L. Abdala-Roberts, J.C. Berny Mier y Teran, F. Covelo, R. de la Mata, M. Francisco, B. Hardwick, R.M. Pires, T. Roslin, D.S. Schigel, J.P.J.G. ten Hoopen, B.G.H. Timmermans, L.J.A. van Dijk, B. Castagneyrol, and A.J.M. Tack. 2018. Impacts of urbanization on insect herbivory and plant defences in oak trees. Oikos https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.05497.

Pearse, I.S., and F. Altermatt. 2013. Extinction cascades partially estimate herbivore losses in a complete Lepidoptera–plant food web. Ecology 94: 1785-1794.

Pearse, I.S., and J.H. Baty. 2012. The predictability of traits and ecological interactions on 17 different crosses of hybrid oaks. Oecologia 169: 489-497.

Pearse, I.S., J.H. Baty, D. Herrmann, R. Sage, and W.D. Koenig. 2015a. Leaf phenology mediates provenance differences in herbivore populations on valley oaks in a common garden. Ecological entomology 40: 525-531.

Pearse, I.S., K.A. Funk, T.S. Kraft, and W.D. Koenig. 2015b. Lagged effects of early-season herbivores on valley oak fecundity. Oecologia 178: 361-368.

Pearse, I.S., and A.L. Hipp. 2009. Phylogenetic and trait similarity to a native species predict herbivory on non-native oaks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106: 18097-18102.

Pearse, I.S., and A.L. Hipp. 2014. Native plant diversity increases herbivory to non-natives. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 281: 20141841.

Pérez-López, G., A. González-Rodríguez, K. Oyama, and P. Cuevas-Reyes. 2016. Effects of plant hybridization on the structure and composition of a highly rich community of cynipid gall wasps: the case of the oak hybrid complex Quercus magnoliifolia x Quercus resinosa in Mexico. Biodiversity and conservation 25: 633-651.

Prior K.M., Hellmann J.J. 2010. Impact of an invasive oak gall wasp on a native butterfly: a test of plant-mediated competition. Ecology 91: 3284-3293.

Prior K.M., Hellmann J.J. 2013. Does enemy loss cause release? A biogeographical comparison of parasitoid effects on an introduced insect. Ecology 94: 1015-1024.

Roth, M. 2012. Urban heat islands. In Handbook of Environmental Fluid Dynamics. Systems, Pollution, Modeling, and Measurements. Volume Two, edited by H.J. S. Fernando, pp. 143-162. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Tovar-Sanchez, E., and K. Oyama. 2006. Community structure of canopy arthropods associated to Quercus crassifolia × Quercus crassipes complex. Oikos 112: 370-381.