Article Superhost Plants Alter the Structure of Plant–Galling Insect Networks in Neotropical Savannas Walter Santos de Araújo 1, Leuzeny Teixeira Moreira 2,*, Luiz Alberto Dolabela Falcão 1, Magno Augusto Zazá Borges 1, Marcílio Fagundes 1, Maurício Lopes de Faria 1 and Frederico Augusto Guimarães Guilherme 3 1 Departamento de Biologia Geral, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros, Montes Claros 39401-089, Minas Gerais, Brazil;
[email protected] (W.S.A.);
[email protected] (L.A.D.F.);
[email protected] (M.A.Z.B.);
[email protected] (M.F.);
[email protected] (M.L.F.) 2 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade e Uso dos Recursos Naturais, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros, Montes Claros 39401-089, Minas Gerais, Brazil;
[email protected] 3 Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Regional Jataí, Jataí 75804-020, Goiás, Brazil;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel+55-38-3220-1466 Received: 2 September 2019; Accepted: 19 September 2019; Published: 24 September 2019 Abstract: Host plants may harbor a variable number of galling insect species, with some species being able to harbor a high diversity of these insects, being therefore called superhost plants. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the occurrence of superhost plant species of genus Qualea (Vochysiaceae) affects the structure of plant–galling insect ecological networks in Brazilian Cerrado. We sampled a total of 1882 plants grouped in 131 species and 43 families, of which 64 species and 31 families of host plants hosted 112 galling insect species. Our results showed that occurrence of superhosts of genus Qualea increased the linkage density of plant species, number of observed interactions, and the size of plant–galling insect networks and negatively affected the network connectance (but had no effect on the residual connectance).