Article on Ecology of Amazonian butterflies is published in the North American magazine Environmental Entomology.

"What can determine which butterflies are present in a given place? What innate characteristics of these insects can affect their distribution over space? Other organisms, such as plants and birds, may be influencing the assemblages of Amazonian butterflies? These questions have been investigated in a study conducted at Reserva Ducke by students and researchers from the Graduate Programs in Entomology and Ecology of the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA) in partnership with a researcher from Rio Grande do Sul. The results were recently published by the northern magazine -american Environmental Entomology Access the article here.

 

            Among the findings, the authors found that plants (which serve as food for young and adult butterflies) and insectivorous birds (main butterfly predators) select the composition of butterfly species throughout space. Still, the level of specialization of butterfly larvae is linked to the richness of plants in a place, as well as large butterflies seem to better withstand the predatory pressure exerted by birds, as the size of the butterflies grows along with the abundance of predators.

 

            The work is part of the master's thesis of the student Márlon Breno Graça, conducted under the guidance of Dr. José Wellington de Morais and Dr. Elizabeth Franklin. The article also has the participation of other members of the Soil Fauna Laboratory (Entomology) Dr. Jorge Luiz Pereira de Souza and the student Pedro Aurélio Costa Lima Pequeno, as well as the former student, master in Ecology by INPA, Anderson Saldanha Bueno. ”

 

Text: Márlon B. Graça