Variation in the guild composition of herbivorous insect assemblages among co-occurring plant species

Half a million species of herbivorous insects have been described. Most of them are diet specialists, using only a few plant species as hosts. Biologists suspect that their specificity is key to their diversity. But why do herbivorous insects tend to be diet specialists? In this review, we catalog a broad range of explanations. We review the evidence for each and suggest lines of research to obtain the evidence we lack. We then draw attention to a second major question, namely how changes in diet breadth affect the rest of a species’ biology. In particular, we know little about how changes in diet breadth feed back on genetic architecture, the population genetic environment, and other aspects of a species’ ecology. Knowing more about how generalists and specialists differ should go a long way toward sorting out potential explanations of specificity, and yield a deeper understanding of herbivorous insect diversity.

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Effects of climate and forest age on plant and caterpillar diversity in the Yucatan, Mexico

Journal of Tropical Ecology ◽

10.1017/s0266467414000364 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 30 (5) ◽

pp. 419-434 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tijl Essens ◽

Euridice Leyequién ◽

Carmen Pozo ◽

Henricus F. M. Vester ◽

Hector A. Hernández-Arana

Keyword(s):

Species Diversity ◽

Plant Species ◽

Forest Type ◽

Species Turnover ◽

Herbivorous Insect ◽

Forest Age ◽

Forest Types ◽

Humid Forest ◽

Species Numbers ◽

Explained Variation

Abstract:Understanding patterns in plant and herbivorous insect diversity across spatial and temporal scales is fundamental to ecology, but comparative multi-taxonomic studies in tropical seasonally dry forests remain scarce. In 36 sites, distributed over three forest age classes (5–10 y, 10–30 y, >100 y) and three seasonal forest types (dry, intermediate, humid), we sampled plants of different stem diameter classes while caterpillars were sampled across vertically distributed forest layers during three seasons over the year. We recorded 299 plant species and 485 caterpillar morphospecies. For large woody plants, species numbers showed a gradually increasing trend with forest age in the intermediate and humid forest types, while the main portion of explained variation in overall species turnover was accounted for by the forest type × forest age interaction (21.3–23.1% of 44.4–48.7%). Ordinations and multivariate pairwise comparisons suggested a faster but also very distinct successional development of species diversity of large plants in the driest compared with humid and intermediate forest types. In contrast, highest species numbers of small plants in the undergrowth was often found in the 5–10 y-old vegetation across forest types, whereas forest type was the major factor in overall species turnover (contributing 24.2% of 48.7% explained variation). Caterpillar species turnover was most correlated to species turnover of small plants; however, variation in caterpillar species diversity appears to be mostly regulated by seasonal cues, and to a lesser extent by patterns of regional turnover and local diversity of undergrowth plant species.

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Higher Elevations Tend to Have Higher Proportion of Plant Species With Glandular Trichomes

Frontiers in Plant Science ◽

10.3389/fpls.2021.632464 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Rui Wu ◽

Simcha Lev-Yadun ◽

Lu Sun ◽

Hang Sun ◽

Bo Song

Keyword(s):

Plant Species ◽

Plant Defenses ◽

Abiotic Factors ◽

Glandular Trichomes ◽

Glandular Trichome ◽

Elevational Gradient ◽

Herbivorous Insects ◽

Herbivorous Insect ◽

Species Relationship ◽

Physical Defenses

Glandular trichomes are well known to participate in plant chemical and physical defenses against herbivores, especially herbivorous insects. However, little is known about large-scale geographical patterns in glandular trichome occurrence. Herbivory pressure is thought to be higher at low elevations because of warmer and more stable climates. We therefore predicted a higher proportion of species with glandular trichomes at low elevations than at higher elevations. We compiled glandular trichome data (presence/absence) for 6,262 angiosperm species from the Hengduan Mountains (a global biodiversity hotspot in southwest China). We tested the elevational gradient (800–5,000 m a.s.l.) in the occurrence of plant species with glandular trichomes, and its correlations with biotic (occurrence of herbivorous insects) and abiotic factors, potentially shaping the elevational gradient in the occurrence of glandular trichomes. We found a significantly positive relationship between elevation and the occurrence of glandular trichomes, with the proportion of species having glandular trichomes increasing from 11.89% at 800 m a.s.l. to 17.92% at above 4,700 m. This cross-species relationship remained significant after accounting for phylogenetic relationships between species. Herbivorous insect richness peaked at mid-elevations and its association with the incidence of glandular trichomes was weak. Mean annual temperature was the most important factor associated negatively with glandular trichomes. Our results do not support the hypothesis that plant defenses decrease with increasing elevation. In contrast, a higher proportion of plant species with glandular trichome toward higher elevations is observed. Our results also highlight the importance of considering the simultaneous influences of biotic and abiotic factors in testing geographical variation in multifunctional plant defenses.

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Generalist herbivorous insect modulates similar rhizosphere bacterial communities across different plant species

Authorea ◽

10.22541/au.158757047.77973809 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Marcia Leite Mondin ◽

Hugo Pantigoso ◽

Daniel Manter ◽

Marcio de Castro Silva Filho ◽

Jorge Vivanco

Keyword(s):

Plant Species ◽

Bacterial Communities ◽

Herbivorous Insect ◽

Rhizosphere Bacterial Communities

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Why species richness of plants and herbivorous insects do or do not correlate

10.1101/2020.04.29.067504 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Naoto Shinohara ◽

Takehito Yoshida

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Plant Species ◽

Insect Species ◽

Herbivorous Insect ◽

Insect Communities ◽

Total Plant ◽

Insect Species Richness ◽

Opposing Effects ◽

Generalist Insect ◽

Number Of Plant Species

AbstractUnraveling the determinants of herbivorous insect diversity has been a major challenge in ecology. Despite the strong association between insect and plant species, previous studies conducted in natural systems have shown great variation in the strength of the correlation between their species richness. Such variation can be attributed to the proportion of generalist insect species (generality), though both higher and lower generality may weaken the correlation because 1) generalist insect species are less dependent on the number of plant species and 2) specialist insect species utilize only a part of the total plant species. To explore these opposing effects, we studied plant and herbivorous insect communities in semi-natural grasslands in Japan. Plant–insect interactions were evaluated in a unique way with a particular focus on the staying and herbivory behaviors of insects, which reflect their habitat use as well as host use. We fousnd that generality of insect communities negatively affected the correlation between species richness of plants and insects. However, such negative effect was significant only when the insect species richness was related with the number of plant species interacted with some insect species, instead of with that of total plant species. The results suggest that considering either of the opposing effects of insect generality is insufficient and they should be inclusively interpreted to understand the relationship between plant and insect species richness.

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Diversity of gall-inducing insect associated with a superhost plant species: Plant architecture, resource availability and interspecific interactions

Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity ◽

10.13057/biodiv/d210344 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marcilio Fagundes ◽

ÉLLEN MARIANE SANTOS Santos ◽

Karen Duarte ◽

Larisa Santos ◽

Jaqueline Vieira ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Host Plant ◽

Plant Species ◽

Resource Availability ◽

Plant Architecture ◽

Community Organization ◽

Interspecific Interactions ◽

Insect Species ◽

Herbivorous Insect ◽

Insect Communities

Abstract. Fagundes M, Santos EML, Duarte KLR, Santos LM, Vieira JS, Oliveira CHD, Silva PS. 2020. Diversity of gall-inducing insect associated with a superhost plant species: Plant architecture, resource availability and interspecific interactions. Biodiversitas 21: 1182-1189. The role of interspecific competition in the organization of herbivorous insect communities may vary depending on resource availability. Trees are structurally more complex and have greater resource availability for herbivorous insects than shrubs. In this study, we evaluated the roles of plant architecture and interspecific interactions on community organization of the gall-inducing insect associated with trees (adult plants) and shrubs (young plants) of Copaifera langsdorffii. Our results showed that the species composition of gall-inducing insect communities associated with C. langsdorffii differed statistically between trees and shrubs. In addition, the trees presented greater diversity of gall-inducing insects than the shrubs, corroborating the hypothesis of plant architecture. The results of the analysis of null models showed that the co-occurrence of gall-inducing insect species associated with trees not differ from the co-occurrence predicted by chance. Thus, interspecific interactions cannot be used to explain the community organization of the gall-inducing insects on C. langsdorffii trees. On the other hand, the co-occurrence of gall-inducing insect species differed from the co-occurrence predicted by chance when shrubs plants were analyzed, indicating that biotic interactions can shape the structure of the gall-inducing insect community on shrubs. The lower availability of oviposition sites probably generates a dispute for these resources among females of different species of gall-inducing insects only in the shrubs. Therefore, the role of competition in the organization of herbivore insect communities on their host plant may vary depending on the ontogenetic stage of the host plant.

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