Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand abstracts
Responses of litter-dwelling arthropods and house mice to beech seeding
in the Orongorongo Valley, New Zealand
J. C. Alley*a, P. H. Berben*, J. S.
Dugdale+, B. M. Fitzgerald**b, P. I.
Knightbridge++, M. J. Meads**, R. A.
Webster#
*Landcare Research, Private Bag 11052, Palmerston North, New
Zealand.
+Landcare Research, Private Bag 6, Nelson, New Zealand.
**Ecological Research Associates of New Zealand, P. O.
Box 48147, Silverstream, New Zealand.
++Landcare Research, Private Bag 11052, Palmerston North,
New Zealand. Current address: Department of Conservation, Private Bag
701, Hokitika, New Zealand.
#Landcare Research, P.O. Box 69, Lincoln, New Zealand.
a Julie Alley died on 8 October 1996.
b Author for correspondence.
This study investigates further the possibility that eruptions of house mice in
forests of southern beech (
Nothofagus spp.) in New Zealand after mast
seedings are triggered by increases in the populations of some arthropods,
especially Lepidoptera larvae and spiders that are common foods of mice, rather
than by the beech seed. It reports on a 5-year study of arthropods of the
forest floor in hard beech and silver beech forest in the Orongorongo Valley,
near Wellington, in relation to (1) litter and seedfall, and (2) the numbers
and diet of mice. Litter-feeding larvae of Lepidoptera in both the litter and
fermentation layers of the forest floor feed on the fallen male flowers of
beech, and most species were more common after heavy flowering of the beeches.
A few of the common spiders (including
Miturga sp., the main spider
eaten by mice) were also more abundant after beech seeding. Analysis of the
long-term records of hard beech seeding, numbers of mice, and numbers of adults
of the moth
Gymnobathra tholodella (Oecophoridae) showed that the number
of mice was positively correlated with both the number of beech seeds and the
number of moths. These results indicate a more complex web of interactions in
beech forest than was earlier suggested, but because the intensity of flowering
in spring largely determines the numbers of both Lepidoptera larvae and beech
seeds, the role of each in the population increase of mice can not be
determined.
Keywords Mus musculus; Nothofagus truncata;
Nothofagus menziesii; flowering; mast seeding; spiders; Lepidoptera;
Oecophoridae; Gymnobathra; Tingena
R99012. Received 13 August 1999; accepted 7 November 2000
(c) Journal of The Royal Society of New Zealand,
Volume 31, Number 2, June 2001, pp 425-452
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1537K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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