Are Laguncularia racemosa galled leaves less attractive to chewing herbivores? Folhas de Laguncularia racemosa com galhas são menos atrativas para herbívoros mastigadores? Isabela Vieira Santos-Mendonça 1 isabelaic@gmail.com Julio Marcelino Monteiro 2 juliommonteiro@yahoo.com José Roberto Botelho Souza 3 jrbsouza@ufpe.br Jarcilene Silva Almeida-Cortez 1 * cortez_jarcy@yahoo.com Abstract Evolutionary interactions between herbivores and plants have resulted in an impressive variety of adaptations, and herbivory pressure has led to the evolution of chemical, mechanical and phenological defense in plants. Coastal mangrove forests provide a very tractable system in which to study the dynamics of herbivory. The objective of this work was to evaluate if galled leaves of the mangrove tree Laguncularia racemosa (L.) Gaerten (Combretaceae) are less consumed by chewing insects. Monthly excursions were carried to the Maracaípe Mangrove in Pernambuco, to collect adult leaves from 60 plants of L. racemosa: 240 ungalled leaves consumed by chewing insects (CL), 240 galled leaves consumed by chewing insects (CLG) and 240 galled leaves not consumed by chewing herbivores (LG). Other leaves were collected in August, in order to quantify total phenolic concentration: 40 intact leaves of individuals with low rate of infestation by galls (LL) and 40 of individuals with high infestation (HL) were thus collected. CLG displayed a lesser loss of foliar area to chewing herbivores. The results show a significant amount of phenols in HL (35.63 mg) and LG (32.7 mg). This high phenol concentration is probably repelling chewing phytophagous. It is known that herbivores tend to avoid leaves that were previously predated by another herbivore. Possibly galls are influencing the feeding performance of the chewing insects. Key words: chemical defenses, total phenolic, mangrove. Resumo Interações evolutivas entre herbívoros e plantas resultaram numa impressionante varie- dade de adaptações, e uma pressão de herbivoria levou a evolução de defesas químicas, mecânicas e fenológicas em plantas. Manguezais são sistemas excelentes para estudos da dinâmica de herbivoria. O objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar se há interação entre a galha induzida por ácaro e herbívoros mastigadores em folhas de Laguncularia racemosa (Combretaceae). Foram realizadas excursões mensais (Novembro/2004 a Outubro/2005) ao manguezal de Maracaípe (PE), para coletar 240 folhas expandidas de cada categoria: consumidas por mastigadores (CL), consumidas e com galhas (CLG) e apenas galhadas (LG), provenientes de 60 plantas. Para as folhas que apresentavam indícios da atividade alimentar de mastigadores foi mensurada a porcentagem de herbivoria. A fim de testar se 1 Dept.. Botânica, Programa de Pós-Grad- uação em Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof° Moraes Rêgo, s/n, Cidade Universitária, 50670-901 Recife PE, Brazil. 2 Dept. Biologia/Área de Botânica, Univer- sidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Rua Dom Manoel de Medeiros s/n, Dois Irmão, 52171-900 Recife PE, Brazil. 3 Dept. Zoologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof° Moraes Rêgo, s/n, Cidade Universitária, 50670-901 Recife PE, Brazil. * Author for correspondence. Neotropical Biology and Conservation 4(2):77-82, may-august 2009 © by Unisinos - doi: 10.4013/nbc.2009.42.02