Author(s)

Ana Carolina Ribeiro de Castro, Germano Leão Demolin Leite, Denis Coelho de Oliveira, Rosy Mary dos Santos Isaias

Departamento de Botanica, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – UFMG, 31270-901. Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil;.
Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Uberlandia – UFU, 38400-902. Uberlandia, MG, Brasil..
Instituto de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – UFMG, 39404-006. Montes Claros, MG, Brasil;.

Anatomical studies in the leaflet globoid galls of Caryocar brasiliense, the “pequi”, aimed to answer how oviposition and the feeding behavior of the galling herbivores altered the morphogenical patterns of the host plant. C. brasiliense globoid gall was 1.28 ± 0.20 mm × 0.90 ± 0.25 mm, with hairy surface; it is sessile and projected to the abaxial surface. Young galls were red while the mature ones were green. Preferentially, they were formed next to leaf margin and possessed one larval chamber containing a single galling specimen. Gall epidermis was uniseriate, with thicker cuticle and more hairy. In some spots, epidermis was substituted by periderm, which indicated the expression of a character usually absent in the leaf laminas. Morphological and anatomical features of these gall morphotype, such as its position in leaf lamina, the fact of being truly closed galls, with typical nutritive tissue involved by sclerenchyma, made them next to the pattern proposed for galls induced by some Hymenoptera.

Gall Anatomy; Hymenoptera; Morphogenesis; Pequi

A. Castro, G. Leite, D. Oliveira and R. Isaias, "Morphological Patterns of a Hymenopteran Gall on the Leaflets of Caryocar brasiliense Camb. (Caryocaraceae)," American Journal of Plant Sciences, Vol. 3 No. 7, 2012, pp. 921-929. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2012.37109.