| Piper guahamense | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Magnoliids |
| Order: | Piperales |
| Family: | Piperaceae |
| Genus: | Piper |
| Species: | P. guahamense |
| Binomial name | |
| Piper guahamense C.DC. (1869) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Piper guahamense, the Guam pepper [1] (Chamorro: pupulun aniti), is a plant in the family Piperaceae, and is endemic to the Mariana Islands. [2]
P. guahamense morphologically resembles the kava pepper, and it has a similar aroma and taste. It is common in shady, moist forests and streamside. [1]
Piper guahamense was first classified as being in the Macropiper genus by in 1839 by Dutch botanist Friedrich Miquel. [3]
The name Piper guahamense was first recorded in 1869 in the 16th volume of Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis by Swiss botanist, Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle. [4] However, later authors grouped it into the narrower genus Macropiper, which consisted of only 9 species, all in the Pacific Ocean. The species is now subsumed under the large genus Piper. [3]
Several species of insect have been recovered exclusively from Piper guahamense. The following is a list of endemic insects that are possibly host-specific. All were collected during a 1911 and 1936 entomological surveys of the island:
The following insects are endemic to the Marianas or Micronesia and have been observed on Piper guahamense and other plant species: a spittlebug ( Lallemandana phalerata ), [8] a rove beetle ( Palaminus swezeyi ), [9] an ant-like leaf beetle ( Euglenes bifossicollis ), [10] a tumbling flower beetle ( Mordellistena castanea ), a chalcid wasp ( Ooencyrtus swezeyi ), [11] three planthoppers (Tambinia guamensis, Ugyops samoaensis , and Capelopterum punctatellum ), [12] and four true weevils ( Trigonops inusitata, Trigonops vulgaris, Daealus tuberosus, and Cryphalus swezeyi ) (Elwood C. Zimmerman noted extensive perforations in the leaves of Piper guahamense due to Trigonops). [13] [14]
Non-endemic invertebrates collected from Piper guahamense include a plant bug ( Creontiades pallidifer), [15] a chalcicoid wasp ( Spalangia endius ), and a fungus weevil ( Araecerus vieillardi ). [16]
