Arthropods associated with Aloe lettyae, an endangered South African Woodbush Granite Grassland plant endemic.

Investigations into arthropod-aloe associations are focused mostly on aloe pollination and on aloe pests, while little is known about other ecological aspects of these associations. During a broader ecological study on the summer-flowering grassland endemic Aloe lettyae, we documented evidence of two arachnid-aloe interactions and 13 insect taxa occurring on or in parts of A. lettyae plants (n=1084) in a representative sample of seven A. lettyae populations. Our data suggest that, of the insects observed, only honeybees play a part in A. lettyae pollination, while the other insect species were either visiting or feeding on A. lettyae reproductive plant parts. This paper presents additional records of an herbivorous insect-aloe interaction for the cerambycid beetle Nemotragus helvolus and the drosophilid fly Apenthecia cf. crassiseta, and documents the parasitoid wasp Afrostilba sp. associated with the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]