SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.50 número2Life history and environment of Cecropia latiloba in Amazonian floodplainsFunción del acumen en las hojas y su distribución vertical en un bosque lluvioso tropical de Costa Rica índice de autoresíndice de assuntospesquisa de artigos
Home Pagelista alfabética de periódicos  

Serviços Personalizados

Journal

Artigo

Indicadores

Links relacionados

Compartilhar


Revista de Biología Tropical

versão On-line ISSN 0034-7744versão impressa ISSN 0034-7744

Resumo

SITTENFELD, Ana et al. Does a polyphagous caterpillar have the same gut microbiota when feeding on different species of food plants?. Rev. biol. trop [online]. 2002, vol.50, n.2, pp.547-560. ISSN 0034-7744.

We used classical culture techniques to explore gut bacteria and changes associated with dietary change in the highly polyphagous, tropical caterpillar Automeris zugana (Saturniidae). Fifty-five third instar wild-caught sibs feeding on Annona purpurea (Annonaceae) in the Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica were divided into eight groups. Each of seven groups was reared to the ultimate instar on another species of food plant normally used by A. zugana. Some pupae were also analyzed for the presence of bacteria. Aerobic bacterial cultures were obtained from all 33 caterpillar guts and the eight pupae inventoried. There was no clear pattern in species composition of cultivated bacteria among the eight diets, and each caterpillar on a given food plant carried only a small fraction of the total set of species isolated from the set of caterpillars feeding on that food plant. Taken as a whole, the larvae and pupae contained 22 species of cultivable bacteria in 12 genera. Enterobacter, present in 81.8% of the samples, was the genus most frequently isolated from the caterpillars, followed by Micrococcus and Bacillus. Bacillus thuringiensis was isolated from 30.3% of the dissected caterpillars, but found in caterpillars feeding on only half of the species of food plants

Palavras-chave : Automeris zugana; Saturniidae; caterpillar; insect gut; bacterial diversity; food plant; Área de Conservación Guanacaste; Costa Rica.

        · resumo em Espanhol     · texto em Inglês

 

Creative Commons License Todo o conteúdo deste periódico, exceto onde está identificado, está licenciado sob uma Licença Creative Commons