Leaf pubescence in buttonwood: Community variation in a putative defense against defoliation.
Plants have a variety of putative defenses against defoliation by herbivores, among which are pubescent leaves. Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus), a Caribbean tree, shows considerable between-individual variation in this trait, and pubescent leaves have less herbivore damage. Surveying 97 island communities, I documented three patterns expected were pubescent individuals more frequent where herbivory is great. (i) Larger islands have a higher percentage of pubescence (larger islands have more herbivores). (ii) Islands nearer to a mainland have a higher percentage of pubescence (nearer islands receive more herbivore immigrants). (iii) Islands having an extremely abundant predator on foliage arthropods, arboreal lizards, have a smaller percentage of pubescence than no-lizard islands. The third effect, though statistically significant, is weak relative to the direct effects of lizards on one category of their prey (spiders) measured in the same system.
Department of Zoology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616.
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