Forty-Five Years of Caterpillar Rearing in Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) Northwestern Costa Rica: DNA Barcodes, BINs, and a First Description of Plant–Caterpillar–Ichneumonoid Interactions Detected

A groundbreaking 45-year study at Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in Costa Rica reveals unprecedented insights into tropical insect community ecology, documenting over 2,400 caterpillar species and their interactions with 1,352 host plants and 26,000 parasitoid rearings, including ichneumonoid wasps. The research, leveraging DNA barcoding and Barcode Index Numbers (BINs), found no asymptotic trends in bi- or tritrophic interactions after 1983 due to climate change impacts on caterpillar densities. Notably, ichneumonoid parasitoids show a preference for larger-bodied hosts, and introduced plant species are utilized by endemic parasitoids. The study highlights the complexity of tropical food webs and suggests new avenues for ecological research.

Quicke, D. L. J., Janzen, D. H., Hallwachs, W., Sharkey, M. J., Hebert, P. D. N., & Butcher, B. A. (2024). Forty-Five Years of Caterpillar Rearing in Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) Northwestern Costa Rica: DNA Barcodes, BINs, and a First Description of Plant–Caterpillar–Ichneumonoid Interactions Detected. Diversity, 16(11), 683. https://doi.org/10.3390/d16110683