Host plant predictability and the feeding patterns of monophagous, oligophagous, and polyphagous insect herbivores

Oecologia ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rex G. Cates
Keyword(s):  
Host Plant ◽  
Insect Herbivores ◽  
Feeding Patterns ◽  
Polyphagous Insect

scholarly journals Tri-trophic level interactions affect host plant development and abundance of insect herbivores

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederico de Siqueira Neves ◽  
Marcílio Fagundes ◽  
Carlos Frankl Sperber ◽  
G. Wilson Fernandes
Keyword(s):  
Host Plant ◽  
Trophic Level ◽  
Plant Development ◽  
Insect Herbivores

Interaction between bracken and its insect herbivores

1985 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 125-131
Author(s):  
J. H. Lawton ◽  
M. MacGarvin
Keyword(s):  
Host Plant ◽  
Natural Enemies ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Insect Species ◽  
Insect Herbivores ◽  
The World ◽  
Below Ground ◽  
One Year ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Typical Site

SynopsisBracken in Britain is a host for 27 species of insect herbivores, with a further 11 species that either feed below ground (and are poorly studied), or appear to be only rarely associated with the plant. A typical site in northern England has an average of 15–16 of these species in any one year. Compared with perennial herbaceous angiosperms with similar wide distributions, bracken is not noticeably depauperate in the number of insect species that feed upon it. Bracken in others parts of the world is attacked by a wide variety of insects, with more species present in the geographical areas where bracken is most common.The ‘feeding niches’ of some of these insects are reviewed. Most are very rare relative to the biomass of their host plants, probably because of the impact of natural enemies; the effect of most of the insects upon their host-plant is consequently negligible.Reverse effects, of host-plant upon the insects, are subtle but poorly understood. Experiments to elucidate these effects are briefly outlined.

scholarly journals The Effect of Host-Plant Phylogenetic Isolation on Species Richness, Composition and Specialization of Insect Herbivores: A Comparison between Native and Exotic Hosts

PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. e0138031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio Miguel Grandez-Rios ◽  
Leonardo Lima Bergamini ◽  
Walter Santos de Araújo ◽  
Fabricio Villalobos ◽  
Mário Almeida-Neto
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Host Plant ◽  
Insect Herbivores

scholarly journals The bigger the better? Vigour of the exotic host plant Calotropis procera (Apocynaceae) affects herbivory

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-366
Author(s):  
Geraldo Wilson Fernandes ◽  
Jarcilene Silva de Almeida ◽  
Maria Fernanda Vicente Rodrigues-Menelau ◽  
Lucas Arantes-Garcia ◽  
Samuel Novais
Keyword(s):  
Host Plant ◽  
Leaf Area ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Calotropis Procera ◽  
Insect Herbivores ◽  
Plant Vigour ◽  
Seasonally Dry ◽  
Shoot Size ◽  
Vigorous Plant ◽  
Leaf Herbivory

The Plant Vigour Hypothesis states that herbivores preferentially feed on the most vigorous plants within a plant population and/or the most vigorous modules within a plant. The goal of this study was to evaluate how shoot size (as an indication of module vigour) affects leaf herbivory in the host plant Calotropis procera, an exotic xerophyte perennial milkweed shrub. We predicted that the proportion of leaf area removed by insect herbivores would be positively related to shoot size. Eight patches were selected containing a varied number of C. procera individuals (5, 8, 29, 31, 55, 79, 116, and 172 individuals/patch) in the Brazilian seasonally dry vegetation (Caatinga), of which five individuals were randomly selected for further analysis. From each individual, three to six shoots were randomly selected, measured and had their leaves collected, for a total of approximately 200 leaves per patch. At the regional scale, the proportion of leaf area removed was positively affected by shoot size. In addition, this pattern was also found for the majority of the studied patches (29, 31, 55, 116, and 172 individuals/patch). Among the insect herbivores associated with C. procera, larvae of Danaus spp. (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) were commonly observed feeding on all patches. These herbivores present a specialized behaviour to circumvent the presence of latex in the host leaves. Although more vigorous plant modules should be better defended compared with the less vigorous modules, Danaus species were able to bypass host defences, and feed on healthy, rapidly growing and vigorous plant modules of C. procera, hence causing more damage to these modules.

Ecological interactions among insect herbivores, ants and the host plant Baccharis dracunculifolia in a Brazilian mountain ecosystem

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graziella França Monteiro ◽  
Luiz Eduardo Macedo-Reis ◽  
Wesley Dáttilo ◽  
Geraldo Wilson Fernandes ◽  
Flavio Siqueira de Castro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Host Plant ◽  
Insect Herbivores ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Mountain Ecosystem

scholarly journals Specialization and generalization in the diversification of phytophagous insects: tests of the musical chairs and oscillation hypotheses

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1795) ◽  
pp. 20132960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nate B. Hardy ◽  
Sarah P. Otto
Keyword(s):  
Host Plant ◽  
Niche Breadth ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Model System ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Phytophagous Insects ◽  
Insect Herbivores ◽  
Plant Feeding ◽  
Intense Exploitation ◽  
Daughter Species

Evolutionary biologists have often assumed that ecological generalism comes at the expense of less intense exploitation of specific resources and that this trade-off will promote the evolution of ecologically specialized daughter species. Using a phylogenetic comparative approach with butterflies as a model system, we test hypotheses that incorporate changes in niche breadth and location into explanations of the taxonomic diversification of insect herbivores. Specifically, we compare the oscillation hypothesis, where speciation is driven by host-plant generalists giving rise to specialist daughter species, to the musical chairs hypothesis, where speciation is driven by host-plant switching, without changes in niche breadth. Contrary to the predictions of the oscillation hypothesis, we recover a negative relationship between host-plant breadth and diversification rate and find that changes in host breadth are seldom coupled to speciation events. By contrast, we present evidence for a positive relationship between rates of host switching and butterfly diversification, consonant with the musical chairs hypothesis. These results suggest that the costs of trophic generalism in plant-feeding insects may have been overvalued and that transitions from generalists to ecological specialists may not be an important driver of speciation in general.

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