Macaranga novoguineensis

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Macaranga novoguineensis
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Genus: Macaranga
Species:
M. novoguineensis
Binomial name
Macaranga novoguineensis
Synonyms [1]
  • Macaranga novoguineensis var. glabraWhitmore

Macaranga novoguineensis is a species of tree in the Euphorbiaceae family. It is native to New Britain and New Guinea. It is a late succession plant, and supports a variety of insect herbivores, including caterpillars from the moth Homona mermerodes .

Contents

Distribution

This species is only found in New Britain and New Guinea. [1] Countries in which it occurs are Papua Niugini (PNG) and Indonesia.

Habitat and ecology

The species is a late succession plant, most common in primary forest, but also in old secondary growth. [2] In primary and old secondary forest plots examined in Madang Province, PNG, this tree was co-dominant along with Pimelodendron sp., Ficus bernaysii , Ficus phaeosyce and Ficus wassa . This species, along with other Macaranga species, were more palatable (had more insects feeding on them) than Ficus species, and this tree was unusual amongst late succession plants in having a wide range of herbivores hosted.

The plant is a host for a variety of insect herbivores, that include adult and larvae leaf-chewers and leaf-miners. [3] The caterpillars of the moth Homona mermerodes eat M. novoguineensis. [4]

History

This species was first described by the Nederlander botanist Johannes Jacobus Smith (1867-1947), [5] who spent 33 year in Jawa, the last 11 years of which was as curator of the then Buitenzorg Botanical Gardens (now Bogor B.G.). Smith primarily worked on orchids, but described many other plants, including Euphorbiaceae. His description of M. novoguineensis was in 1912 in the publication Nova Guinea; a Journal of Botany, Zoology, Anthropology, Ethnography, Geology and Palaeontology of the Papuan Region (Leiden).

Further reading

Related Research Articles

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Mallotus is a genus of the spurge family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1790. Two species are found in tropical Africa and Madagascar. All the other species are found in East Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, eastern Australia, and certain islands of the western Pacific. The genus has about 150 species of dioecious trees or shrubs.

<i>Claoxylon</i> Genus of flowering plants

Claoxylon is a flowering plant genus in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, comprising dioecious subshrubs to small trees. It was first described as a genus in 1824. The genus is distributed in paleotropical areas: Madagascar through South and Southeast Asia, Malesia to Melanesia, Hawaiʻi, and Australia. Half of the species are in Malesia. According to a molecular phylogenetic study by Wurdack, Hoffmann & Chase (2005), Claoxylon is sister to Erythrococca, and together they form the top of a Hennigian comb-like phylogeny.

<i>Endospermum</i> Genus of flowering plants

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<i>Homalanthus</i> Genus of flowering plants

Homalanthus is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1824. It is the only genus in subtribe Carumbiinae. The genus is native to tropical Asia, Australia, and various islands in the Pacific.

Herbivores are dependent on plants for food, and have coevolved mechanisms to obtain this food despite the evolution of a diverse arsenal of plant defenses against herbivory. Herbivore adaptations to plant defense have been likened to "offensive traits" and consist of those traits that allow for increased feeding and use of a host. Plants, on the other hand, protect their resources for use in growth and reproduction, by limiting the ability of herbivores to eat them. Relationships between herbivores and their host plants often results in reciprocal evolutionary change. When a herbivore eats a plant it selects for plants that can mount a defensive response, whether the response is incorporated biochemically or physically, or induced as a counterattack. In cases where this relationship demonstrates "specificity", and "reciprocity", the species are thought to have coevolved. The escape and radiation mechanisms for coevolution, presents the idea that adaptations in herbivores and their host plants, has been the driving force behind speciation. The coevolution that occurs between plants and herbivores that ultimately results in the speciation of both can be further explained by the Red Queen hypothesis. This hypothesis states that competitive success and failure evolve back and forth through organizational learning. The act of an organism facing competition with another organism ultimately leads to an increase in the organism's performance due to selection. This increase in competitive success then forces the competing organism to increase its performance through selection as well, thus creating an "arms race" between the two species. Herbivores evolve due to plant defenses because plants must increase their competitive performance first due to herbivore competitive success.

<i>Macaranga grandifolia</i> Species of plant in the family Euphorbiaceae

Macaranga grandifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. Common names for this plant include nasturtium tree, parasol leaf tree and bingabing. It is endemic to the Philippines and has been widely cultivated in Hawaii as a tropical ornamental. This plant has become very popular garden ornamental in many parts of the tropics for the extraordinary grandiose leaves, which are rounded-ovate in shape, with prominent, reddish veins and the stem attached towards the center of the leaf blade. The flowers are pinkish red and the males are held in coral-like, congested inflorescences. Twine made from the bark and the wood was used for fishing spears. The leaves were used to wrap food. Birds eat the ripe fruit.

<i>Homona coffearia</i> Species of moth

Homona coffearia, the tea tortrix or camellia tortrix, is a moth of the family Tortricidae. The species was first described by Nietner in 1861. It is widely distributed in the Oriental region.

<i>Antidesma ghaesembilla</i> Species of plant in Phyllanthaceae family

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<i>Cleora scriptaria</i> Species of moth

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<i>Sebastiania pavoniana</i> Species of tree

Sebastiania pavoniana is a species of tree in the spurge family native to Mexico and northwest Costa Rica. It is the 'bean' part of the Mexican jumping bean, despite not being a legume like true beans. The 'jumping' is provided by the larva of the jumping bean moth.

Lophothripa vitea is a moth of the family Nolidae first described by Swinhoe in 1885. It is found in Indo-Australian tropics towards the Solomon Islands.

<i>Macaranga triloba</i> Southeastern Asian forest tree

Macaranga triloba is a species of plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is native to the tropical forests of southeastern Asia. It is a pioneer species, colonising recently cleared or burnt areas of the forest.

Mallotus floribundus is a tree in the family Euphorbiaceae, in the Stylanthus section, native to Southeast Asia, Wallaceae, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Spathiostemon javensis is a plant that can grow as a shrub or a tree in the tribe Acalypheae of the family Euphorbiaceae. It is endemic to Malesia, occurring from the Bismarck Archipelago to New Guinea, Wallacea and into Southeast Asia. It is often common in the understorey of forests. The wood is used in constructions.

Hopea novoguineensis is a rainforest tree species in the Dipterocarpaceae family. It is found in New Guinea and on Halmahera, Maluku Province, Indonesia. The tree produces good timber.

Pimelodendron amboinicum is a tree species in the Euphorbiaceae family. It is found from the Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific, west to Sulawesi in Indonesia. The timber is used locally, though larger-scale illegal logging is apparent.

<i>Aporosa octandra</i> Tree species

Aporosa octandra is a species of plant in the family Phyllanthaceae found from Queensland and New Guinea to Indonesia, Zhōngguó/China and India. It is a highly variable plant with 4 named varieties. Its wood is used in construction and to make implements, its fruit is edible. The Karbi people of Assam use the plant for dyeing, textile colours have quite some significance in their culture.

A tree in the Moraceae family, Ficus bernaysii is found from New Guinea to the Solomon Islands, growing in lowland rainforest. It is dioecious, and grows cauliflorous fruit. It is fed on by a wide range of animals.

A tree in the Moraceae family, Ficus phaeosyce grows in eastern New Guinea, endemic to the nation of Papua Niugini. It is a shade tolerant understorey species, locally very abundant. A range of insect herbivores feed on the plant.

References

  1. 1 2 "Macaranga novoguineensis J.J.Sm". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  2. Leps, Jan; Novotny, Vojtech; Basset, Yves (2001). "Habitat and successional status of plants in relation to the communities of their leaf-chewing herbivores in Papua New Guinea". Journal of Ecology. 89 (2): 186–199. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2745.2001.00540.x . Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  3. Novotny, Vojtech; with 14 others. "Guild-specific patterns of host specialization in tropical forest insects" (PDF). Retrieved 10 March 2021.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. Hulcr, Jiri; with six others (2007). "DNA barcoding confirms polyphagy in a generalist moth, Homona mermerodes (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)". Molecular Ecology Notes. 7 (4): 549–557. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-8286.2007.01786.x . Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  5. "Macaranga novoguineensis J.J.Sm., Nova Guinea 8: 789 (1912)". International Plant Name Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 10 March 2021.