Abstract
Intraspecific variation in plants is expected to have profound impacts
on the arthropod communities associated with them. Because sexual
dimorphism in plants is expected to provide consistent variation among
individuals of the same species, researchers have often studied the
effect it has on associated arthropods. Nevertheless, most studies have
focused on the effect of sexual dimorphism in a single or a few
herbivores, thus overlooking the potential effects on the whole
arthropod community. Our main objective was to evaluate effects of
Buddleja cordata’s plant-sex on its associated arthropod community. We
surveyed 13 pairs of male and female plants every two months during a
year (June 2010-April 2011). Every sampling date, we measured plant
traits (water content and leaf thickness), herbivory, and the arthropod
community. We did not find differences in herbivory between plant sex or
through time. However, we found differences in water content through
time, with leaf water-content matching the environmental seasonality.
For arthropod richness, we found 68 morphospecies associated with female
and 72 with male plants, from which 53 were shared by both sexes. We did
not observe differences in morphospecies richness; however, we found
sex-associated differences in the diversity of all species and
differences on the diversity of the most abundant species with an
interesting temporal component. During peak flowering season male plants
showed higher values on both parameters, but during the peak
fructification season female plants showed the higher values on both
diversity parameters. Our research exemplifies the interaction between
plant-phenology and plant-sex as drivers of arthropod communities’
diversity, even when plant sexual-dimorphism is inconspicuous, and
highlighting the importance of accounting for seasonal variation. We
stress the need of conducting more studies that test this time-dependent
framework in other dioecious systems, as it has the potential to
reconcile previous contrasting observations reported in the literature.