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Abstract

Feeding on very small seeds at tree fruit falls is a recently discovered adaptation of ground beetles living in tropical lowland rainforests. A seed-feeding guild of eight species of the genus Notiobia is known from fig fruit falls at a terra firme rainforest near Manaus (Central Amazonia). Only two of these species also reproduce at fig fruit falls. The remaining six species use fig fruit falls as 'stepping-stones' when migrating between the more seasonally restricted fruit falls of their host tree species. Four species are known to feed and reproduce at fruit falls of the Melastomataceae genera Bellucia, Loreya and Miconia. One of the remaining species, N. disparilis is only known from four specimens and the host tree species where it reproduces is still unknown. The sixth species, N. nebrioides, appears in comparatively high numbers at both fig and Melastomataceae fruit falls but does not reproduce there. In this study we looked for its host tree species and found it to be the most abundant carabid beetle at fruit falls of Coussapoa asperifolia (Cecropiaceae) and Vismia guianensis (Clusiaceae) and to reproduce there. Recently, Arndt and Kirmse (in press) found N. nebrioides reproducing at fruit falls of Goupia glabra (Celestraceae) in south Venezuela. So N. nebrioides seems to be the most pronounced generalist among the seed-feeding ground beetles in Amazonian non-inundated lowland rainforests, reproducing at fruit falls of trees belonging to three different families.