Living in an urban pod: Seed predation and parasitism of bruchid beetles in a native tree species

Abstract

Urbanisation is one of the main drivers of insect species loss worldwide. However, its impacts on ecological interactions involving insects still deserve further research, especially seed predation and parasitism of seed predators. Here, we evaluated the seed predation rate by the specialist bruchid beetle Pseudopachymerina spinipes and its parasitism rate in the native tree Vachellia caven (Fabaceae) along an urbanisation gradient in Cordoba (Argentina). Since resource availability can influence these ecological interactions, we also investigated whether seed and prey availability could affect seed predation and parasitism rates, respectively. We sampled trees in 10 sampling sites along an urbanisation gradient estimated by the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) within a 100 m radius. In our system, sites with low NDVI, beyond representing the low amount of vegetation cover, also indicate high surface temperature and low availability of host trees. Seed predation in V. caven and the parasitism rate of P. spinipes were significantly reduced with increasing urbanisation. Notably, seed availability at the pod level did not affect seed predation rate, while prey availability was negatively correlated with parasitism rate. These findings suggest a deleterious effect of urbanisation on the studied antagonistic interactions, giving no support to the idea of resource limitation effects.