Diversity of bryophyte-herbivore interactions: herbivore assemblages in various temporal scales based on the analyses of feeding damages

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K21200
• Project/Area Number (Other): 18H06077 (2018)
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund (2019); Single-year Grants (2018)
• Review Section: 0703:Biology at organismal to population levels and anthropology, and related fields
• Research Institution: Ehime University
• Principal Investigator: Imada Yume 愛媛大学, 理工学研究科(理学系), 助教 (80818948)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-08-24 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 生物間相互作用 / 陸上植物 / 生物多様性 / コケ / 昆虫 / 寄生

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To elucidate history of interactions between bryophytes and arthropods, I investigated such interactions with materials in modern and in the fossil records. First, this study has revealed that extant bryophytes are consumed by various insect lineages with moderately diverse Functional Feeding Groups. Some external feeders and leaf-miners are distinguishable at family level based on the characteristic feeding damages, which may help understanding traces in bryophyte fossils. Second, examinations of bryophyte fossils have revealed some damages which are interpretable as feeding damages, from three geologic times: in the Devonian, Cretaceous, and the Miocene. Such damages are compared to the modern analogs which allow us to infer the identity. Third, I have fortuitously discovered a diversity of parasitoids (and potential predators) of bryophyte-feeding insects. Overall, this project has provided a new landscape for studies of bryophyte-arthropod interactions.

Free Research Field

進化生態学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

「4億年以上の長い歴史のなかで植物はいかに他生物と関わってきたか」を明らかにするには、現生生物学と古生物学の視点が必要である。本課題は、その両方に取り組んだ数少ない研究として学術的に意義深い。また、日本で身近に親しまれてきたコケが、多くの新種の昆虫（コケ食昆虫やその捕食寄生者）と互いに関わり合っているという発見は、日本が未知の生物多様性の恩恵を受けているという認識を深める点で社会的意義がある。