Temporal variation in the influence of forest succession on caterpillar communities: A long‐term study in a tropical dry forest

Forest succession can influence herbivore communities through changes in host availability, plant quality, microclimate, canopy structure complexity and predator abundance. It is not well known, however, if such influence is constant across years. Caterpillars have been reported to be particularly susceptible to changes in plant community composition across forest succession, as most species are specialists and rely on the presence of their hosts. Nevertheless, in the case of tropical dry forests, plant species have less defined successional boundaries than tropical wet forests, and hence herbivore communities should be able to persist across different successional stages. To test this prediction, caterpillar communities were surveyed during eight consecutive years in a tropical dry forest in four replicated successional stages in Chamela, Jalisco and Mexico. Lepidopteran species richness and diversity were equivalent in mature forests and early successional stages, but a distinctive caterpillar community was found for the recently abandoned pastures. Species composition tended to converge among all four successional stages during the span of eight years. Overall, our results highlight the importance of both primary and secondary forest for the conservation of caterpillar biodiversity at a landscape level. We also highlight the relevance of long‐term studies when assessing the influence of forest succession to account for across year variation in species interactions and climatic factors. in French is available with online material. Resumen La sucesión vegetal puede influenciar las comunidades de herbívoros a través de la disponibilidad de plantas hospederas, la calidad de las plantas, el microclima, la complejidad estructural del dosel o la abundancia de depredadores. Sin embargo, se desconoce si esta influencia es constante a través de los años. Se ha descrito que las larvas de lepidópteros son particularmente susceptibles a cambios en la composición de la comunidad de plantas a lo largo de la sucesión vegetal, dado que la mayoría de las especies son especialistas y dependen de la presencia de su planta hospedera. En el caso de los bosques tropicales caducifolios, las especies vegetales no tienen un estatus sucesional tan definido como las plantas de los bosques tropicales húmedos, y por lo tanto es probable que las comunidades de herbívoros persistan a través de diferentes estadios sucesionales. Para poner a prueba esta predicción, se evaluó la comunida