Katrin Vohland, Maria A. de Jesus, Christopher Martius and Joachim Adis

ABSTRACT

The decomposer communities of macro-invertebrates in dead wood were investigated on sites in the whitewater inundation and on upland forests, in order to explain niche segregation in xylophagous millipedes in contrasting habitats. Several wood and habitat parameters as well as the fungi and macro-invertebrates inhabiting logs were analysed. The most important factor determining the occurrence of the aphelidesmid millipedes seemed to be the density of the wood in relation to the nutrients. Whereas wood from whitewater inundation forests is generally softer, in terra firme logs most of the nutrients are gone when the wood is as soft to allow its ingestion by millipedes.