Corresponding author: Charles L. Staines (
Academic editor: A. Michael Schmitt
Survey work from 1992–2001 identified 139 species of hispines at the lowland part of La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. The tribe
Hispines comprise half of the subfamily
The combination of the
The adult hispine head is opisthognathous, prominent, visible from above, at least to behind the eyes. The frons is prominent, exposed or rarely retracted. The antennae are not retractable and are closely inserted between the eyes. The pronotum is narrower than the elytra; it is more or less quadrangular or trapezoidal, with definite anterior angles which may have a small tubercle. The scutellum is always visible. The elytra lack lateral expansions or have reduced and discontinuous expansions. The margins are usually denticulate or with spines.Larvae are either leaf-miners or free living. They have eight pairs of abdominal spiracles which are well developed and dorsally placed; with the eighth abdominal segment terminal, and with free hind margin (
Ecologically, New World hispines fall into three feeding groups: external feeders; sheath, appressed or rolled-leaf feeders; and leaf-miners. In the Old World, some species have been reported as stem borers in herbaceous or semi-ligneous plants, but this has not been reported from the New World. The biology of few species has been studied; most are not associated with a host plant or plant family.
La Selva Biological Station (
Rainfall varies from 152.0 mm (March) to 480.7 mm (July) with a total 4 m per year. The dry season is short and not severe (
There are 1744 plant species documented from La Selva. The most speciose families are
The Arthropods of La Selva (ALAS) project was started in 1991 (
Daily operations of ALAS were conducted by the parataxonmists under the direction of the principal investigators John T. Longino, Evergreen State College, and Robert K. Colwell, University of Connecticut. Over the course of the project there were over 100 collaborating taxonomists.
The ALAS survey consisted of both structured and directed sampling. Structured sampling consisted of black-lights, Malaise and flight intercept traps, and canopy fogging (see
Passive black-lights were utilized from 1993 to 1999 at twelve sites, six on the ground and six in the canopy. Malaise traps were used at sixteen sites from 1993 to 2000. Specimens were collected directly into ethanol and the traps emptied every two weeks. Flight intercept traps were place at sixteen sites and samples were collected every two weeks.
Canopy fogging was conducted in 1993–1994, 1996, and 2000. Sixteen trees were fogged: six trees of the most common species at La Selva, six trees of an intermediate abundant species, and trees of six different species. The tree selected had large crowns with little crown overlap and with good climbing access.
Directed collecting for chrysomelids used beating, sweeping, visual observation, known host plant observation, and use of a mid-canopy shaker net.
As of the end on 2001, a total of 139 hispine species have been collected at La Selva Biological Station (see
Quantitative inventory by non-specialists using standard sampling techniques can capture about half of the fauna. Individual methods are needed to sample the rest of the community. Sweeping, beating, and host plant sampling are the best methods. Fogging, Berlese funnels, and Malaise traps capture a few species usually not otherwise collected but are not sufficient in themselves to indicate the actual fauna.
Hispines known from La Selva Biological Station and their plant associations (
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The most recent classification of hispines is by
Over 40% of the 139 hispine species and 25% of the genera are in the tribe
At La Selva
Seven other genera of
The tribe
The tribe
The New World tribe
Two species,
The tribe
The tribe
Hispines can be found in most non-aquatic habitats at La Selva. There are 46 species which feed on rolled leaves and inflorences of Zingiberales. This one feeding guild accounts for 33% of the hispine species known from La Selva.
Most hispines species seem to be restricted to understory to mid-canopy level plants. Work on hispines has shown many species to be monophagous or narrowly oligophagous. These species are found mostly in relation to their host plants. Other hispines are broadly oligophagous or polyphagous and can be found in many habitats. A continuing problem in inventory work is determining if the specimen collected was actually on its host plant or was a transient. Much of the earlier literature on host associations does not specify whether the insect was feeding as an adult, was breeding on the plant, or merely resting on it.
Relatively few species have only been collected from canopy fogging but these have been almost always undescribed species. Some of these species may actually be breeding in epiphytes rather than the fogged tree.
Most of the La Selva hispine fauna is closely related to South American species. Some species have distributions throughout the Neotropics such as
Many species appear to be Central American Atlantic lowland wet forest endemics but with congeners in South America.
Of the 139 hispine species known from La Selva, 125 (89.9%) are described species with published names, one is a morphospecies which is known to be new, and 14 (11.2%) are morphospecies in groups whose taxonomy is too poorly known to determine whether they are new or not.
La Selva hispine species can be identified using the key to the genera in
What do hispines eat? A little more than half (63.3%) of La Selva hispines have any host plant association. Many of these have only been noted as being collected on a plant rather than actually feeding on it (listed as adult on
What is the biology and ecology of hispines? Very little work has been done on the biology and ecology of La Selva hispines.
What are the hispine host plant interactions?
How do pathogens, predators, and parasitoids influence hispine populations? Hispines are parasitized by various wasps and flies (
How do hispine populations and distributions change over time?
I thank Jack Longino, Evergreen State College, and Henry Hespenheide, University of California at Los Angeles, for inviting me to participate in the ALAS project, Danilo Brenes, Ronald Vargas, Maylin Paniagua, and Nelci Oconotrillo, the ALAS parataxonomists, for their work in specimen collecting and processing. Funding for field work as provided by NSF grants BSR-9025024, DEB 9401069, and DEB 9706976.