Ming-Qiang Wang

Chinese Academy of Sciences | CAS · Chengdu Institute of Biology

Declining plant diversity alters ecological networks, such as plant‐herbivore interactions. However, our knowledge of the potential mechanisms underlying effects of plant species loss on plant‐herbivore network structure is still limited. We used DNA‐barcoding to identify herbivore‐host plant associations along declining levels of tree diversity in...

The mechanisms driving species co‐occurrence are varied and include biotic interactions, abiotic factors, and scale‐dependent processes. Based on a comprehensive dataset of lepidopteran herbivores recorded from a large‐scale forest biodiversity experiment, we tested the contribution to herbivore species co‐occurrence of herbivore phylogenetic relat...

The choice of trap in entomological surveys affects the composition of captured insects, though previous comparative studies have been limited in the types of composition measured, and the effects of environmental context. We assessed the sampling bias of several traps commonly used in pollinator monitoring: blue, yellow, and white pan traps, and b...

Ecosystem functioning depends on biodiversity at multiple trophic levels, yet relationships between multitrophic diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality have been poorly explored, with studies often focusing on individual trophic levels and functions and on specific ecosystem types. Here, we show that plant diversity can affect ecosystem functio...

Environmental factors can influence ecological networks, but these effects are poorly understood in the realm of the phylogeny of host-parasitoid interactions. Especially, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the ways that biotic factors, including plant diversity, tree identity, genetic diversity, overall community composition of higher trophi...

Environmental factors can influence ecological networks, but these effects are poorly understood in the realm of the phylogeny of host-parasitoid interactions. Especially, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the ways that biotic factors, including plant diversity, tree identity, genetic diversity, overall community composition of higher trophi...

Environmental factors can influence ecological networks, but these effects are poorly understood in the realm of the phylogeny of host-parasitoid interactions. Especially, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the ways that biotic factors, including plant diversity, tree identity, genetic diversity, overall community composition of higher trophi...

Biodiversity is declining on a global scale with detrimental effects on ecosystem functioning. Effects of reduced tree diversity on the diversity of aboveground animals have been studied in detail, whereas the response of soil animals remains poorly understood. We analyzed seasonal variations of soil oribatid mite communities as major soil detritiv...

How many species of life are there on Earth? This is a question that we want to know but cannot yet answer. Some scholars speculate that the number of species may reach 2.2 billion when considering cryptic diversity and that each morphology-based insect species may contain an average of 3.1 cryptic species. With nearly two million described species...

Globally, insect pollinators that are linked to increased yields in many crops have experienced severe population declines. Crop diversification is often proposed as an effective conservation measure to boost pollinator populations. Here, we investigate the potential benefits of mixed oilseed rape/milk vetch cultivation for wild pollinator communit...

There are many factors known to drive species turnover, although the mechanisms by which these operate are less clear. Based on comprehensive datasets from the largest tree diversity experiment worldwide (BEF-China), we used shared herbivore species (zeta diversity) and multi-site generalized dissimilarity modelling to investigate the patterns and...

Mountainous regions are generally characterized by high species turnover, yet studies applying novel conceptual frameworks to analyze the spatial structure and organization of montane biota along elevational gradients remain scarce. Based on the zeta diversity framework — a novel turnover metric that focuses on average number of species shared acro...

The full potential for using DNA barcodes for profiling functional trait diversity has yet to be determined in plants and animals; thus, we outline a general framework for quantifying functional trait diversity of insect community DNA and propose and assess the accuracy of three methods for achieving this. We built a novel dataset of traits and DNA...

There are many factors known to drive species turnover although the mechanisms by which these operate are less clear. Based on comprehensive datasets we used zeta diversity and multi-site generalized dissimilarity modelling to investigate the pattern and determinants of species turnover for Lepidoptera herbivores. We found that the average number o...

Forests sustain 80% of terrestrial biodiversity and provide essential ecosystem services. Biodiversity experiments have demonstrated that plant diversity correlates with both primary productivity and higher trophic diversity. However, whether higher trophic diversity can mediate the effects of plant diversity on productivity remains unclear. Here,...

Insects are key pollinators to ecosystem function, but much work remains to determine the most cost-e ective, reliable scheme to monitor them. Pan traps (PT) and flight interception traps (FIT) are two of the most popular insect sampling methods used. However, their relative sampling performance and cost is poorly known for agroecosystems in China....

Human-induced biodiversity loss negatively affects ecosystem function, but the interactive effects of biodiversity change across trophic levels remain insufficiently understood. We sampled arboreal spiders and lepidopteran larvae across seasons in 2 years in a subtropical tree diversity experiment, and then disentangled the links between tree diver...

BEF-China; Predatory spiders; Herbivory caterpillars; Functional Animal Groups

Global biodiversity decline and its cascading effects through trophic interactions pose a severe threat to human society. Establishing the impacts of biodiversity decline requires a more thorough understanding of multi‐trophic interactions and, more specifically, the effects that loss of diversity in primary producers has on multi‐trophic community...

Plant diversity has been found to increase herbivore diversity, including abundance, species richness and phylogenetic diversity. However, it is yet to be established at which spatial scale these effects are strongest, because host finding and community assembly may be shaped by host diversity both in local habitat patches and at larger scales. Usi...

Nutritional content of host plants is expected to drive caterpillar species assemblages and their trait composition. These relationships are altered by tree richness-induced neighborhood variation and a seasonal decline in leaf quality. We tested how key functional traits related to the growth and defenses of the average caterpillar hosted by a tre...

This paper reviews current progresses on insect diversity monitoring in China and gives a brief introduction to the planning and progress of the Insect Diversity Monitoring Network, China (Sino BON–Insects). Because insects play a key role in ecosystem processes it is important to monitor their diversity over the long term. Different monitoring tec...

Background & Aims: We reviewed progress on insect biodiversity research over the past 30 years and further analyzed the trends, focusing on varied study sys tems (e.g. forest, grassland and agriculture etc.) and important functional insect groups, such as pollinators, herbivores and predators. Progresses: Declines of insect abundance and diversity...

BEF-China)新岗山样地 5 年的长期定点监测和实验样本积累，我们发现了独栖 蜂的主要类群和发生规律。巢管法共获得 129 个物种，隶属于 3 目 25 科。其中传粉者占全部独栖蜂的 26.6%，共 2 科 12 种，主要为分舌蜂和切叶蜂；捕食者约占全部独栖蜂的 73.4%，有 4 科 44 种，以蜾蠃、 蛛蜂、泥蜂和方头泥蜂为主；独栖蜂寄生者有 19 科 73 种，主要类群是麻蝇、蜂虻、青蜂、钩腹蜂和姬 小蜂。独栖蜂物种组成中传粉者多样性显著低于捕食者。同时独栖蜂中普遍存在着雌雄羽化异律现象， 即雄性先羽化，并在越冬个体中更明显。切叶蜂科和方头泥蜂科的发生时间比以蜾蠃亚科和蛛蜂科的发 生时间更集中。此外，通过构建独栖蜂和寄生者的互作网络，我们发现寄生者多度和多样性受较低营养 级寄主的...

报告摘要：基于昆虫形态分类学和DNA分类学原理和方法，实现对较蜜蜂总科和小蜂总科物种的精确和高效界定。以蛾类幼虫物种界定为突破口，重点介绍研究组长期在江西省新岗山试验基地蹲点，开展：中欧BEF-China项目的研究成果：发现植物多样性能显著的影响膜翅目昆虫和鳞翅目幼虫的多度、物种多样性、及系统发生多样性，还在较大程度上通过鳞翅目幼虫的多度间接地影响鳞翅目幼虫的各项多样性指标；植物多样性与叶性状(干物质含量、叶韧度)决定了植食昆虫共生微生物的多样性及群落组成；植食性鳞翅目幼虫共现指数与树和鳞翅目的系统发生距离呈显著负相关；系统发生结构在三个空间尺度上均表现为聚集模式（clustering pattern）。该结果支持了整体上环境过滤（environmental filtering）的重要作用。...

Epipaschiinae, a subfamily of Pyralidae, has characteristic features distinct from other groups of Pyralidae, such as the thick scales and labial palpi usually upturned. This subfamily is a relative smaller group in Pyralidae, and currently reports over 700 species worldwide (Solis, 1992, 1994; Nuss et al., 2021). Solis (1992) listed 287 known epip...

From regional to global scales, anthropogenic environmental change is causing biodiversity loss and reducing ecosystem functionality. Previous studies have investigated the relationship between plant diversity and functional insect communities in temperate and also in tropical grasslands and forests. However, few studies have explored these dynamic...

Herbivorous insects acquire microorganisms from host plants or soil, but it remains unclear how the diversity and functional composition of host plants contribute to structuring herbivore microbiomes. Within a controlled tree diversity setting, we used DNA metabarcoding of 16S rRNA to assess the contribution of Lepidoptera species and their local e...

From regional to global scales, anthropogenic environmental change is causing biodiversity loss and reducing ecosystem functionality. Previous studies have investigated the relationship between plant diversity and functional insect communities in temperate and also in tropical grasslands and forests. However, few studies have explored these dynamic...

Global change exposes forest ecosystems to many risks including novel climatic conditions, increased frequency of climatic extremes and sudden emergence and spread of pests and pathogens. At the same time, forest landscape restoration has regained global attention as an integral strategy for climate change mitigation. Owing to unpredictable future...

Plant diversity loss can alter higher trophic‐level communities via non‐random species interactions, which in turn may cascade to affect key ecosystem functions. These non‐random linkages might be best captured by patterns of phylogenetic diversity, which take into account co‐evolutionary dependencies. However, lack of adequate phylogenetic data of...

Three species of the genus Stericta are described as new to science, S. melasiversusa sp. nov., S. penicilasa sp. nov. and S. hampsoni sp. nov. And a new combination, Stericta melanobasis (Hampson, 1906) comb. nov., was transferred from the genus Lepidogma. All adults and their genital structures are illustrated. The differences between the genus S...

Two new genera of Epipaschiinae are described. The genus Arcanusa Wang, Chen & Wu, gen. n. is established for Ar. apexiarcanusa Wang, Chen & Wu, sp. n. and Ar. sinuosa (Moore, 1888), comb. n., described in Scopocera Moore, 1888 (junior synonym of Stericta Lederer, 1863). The female genitalia of Ar. sinuosa (Moore, 1888), comb. n. are described for...

Nine species of the genus Coenodomus (including one unnamed species) are recognized from China. Among them, four species are described as new to science: C. anacanthos sp. nov., C. pachycaulosus sp. nov., C. puniceus sp. nov. and C. stigma. sp. nov. Two species, C. fumosalis (Hampson, 1903) and C. rotundinidus Hampson, 1891 are reported in China fo...

Ten species of the genus Lista are recognized from China. Among them, five species are described as new to science, namely, Listaangustusasp. n., Listagilvasasp. n., Listalongifundamenasp. n., Listamenghaiensissp. n., and Listasichuanensissp. n. Diagnoses are provided for the genus and five previously described species, Listaharaldusalis (Walker, 1...