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Vertical community structure and resource utilization in neotropical forest cockroaches
Author(s) -
SCHAL COBY,
BELL WILLIAM J.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
ecological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.865
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2311
pISSN - 0307-6946
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2311.1986.tb00320.x
Subject(s) - biology , arboreal locomotion , plant litter , ecology , guild , intraspecific competition , perch , trophic level , foraging , diel vertical migration , habitat , forage , litter , nutrient , fishery , fish <actinopterygii>
.1 Patterns of vertical habitat use of ten species of cockroaches are examined. Three assemblages of cockroaches are recognized on the basis of morphology, foraging behaviour, foraging heights, and overlaps and breadths of vertical distributions. 2 Three apterous and brachypterous species occur near the ground and comprise one assemblage. They feed mainly on material in the leaf‐litter. 3 Species that perch higher either migrate into the leaf‐litter on a diel basis and feed on both leaf‐litter and epiphyllic materials, or some are strictly arboreal and forage on algae, liverworts, lichens, spores, pollen and trichomes on the surfaces of leaves. 4 Trophic and behavioural correlations with perch height are described and the functions of perching are examined. 5 We conclude that studies of interactions among species are confounded by our lack of understanding of stage‐ and sex‐specific interactions of coexisting species. A simplistic ‘species’approach to such interactions is inadequate because it does not recognize intraspecific variation.