Kristina Karlsson Green, Chiara De Pasqual, Maria Litto, Peter Anderson
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
During decision-making, animals may use either innate or plastic behaviours. This has been suggested to be important for generalist phytophagous insects where females need to assess a large range of cues during host plant selection for oviposition. To facilitate the choice, generalists may thus use innate preference hierarchies among host plants combined with phenotypic plasticity based on earlier host experience, but if populations differ in whether they rely on innate or plastic factors during decision-making is not well-known. Females from an Egyptian population of the polyphagous moth Spodoptera littoralis has previously been found to shift preference between plants in their innate preference hierarchy depending on larval host plant experience. We studied the innate preference hierarchy for three host plants (cotton, cabbage and cowpea), and whether the hierarchy shifts based on larval host plant experience, in a Northern range margin population (Italy) and a core population (Kenya) of S. littoralis, to see if and how these traits vary across populations. In addition, we studied larval performance on the three host plants in all three populations. The Italian and Kenyan populations had different innate preference hierarchies, and both hierarchies differed from the hierarchy that has previously been found in the Egyptian population. Furthermore, the host plant selection of ovipositing females was affected by larval diet in the Italian and Kenyan population, but the larval host plant experience did not completely shift the preference hierarchy as in the Egyptian population. This indicates that not only host plant preference per se, but also phenotypic plasticity during host plant selection can vary between populations. We further found that the populations responded differently to larval diet for some performance traits. However, it was only the Italian population that showed indications of any link between preference and performance, as they had slower development on their least preferred host plant. Overall, preference divergence between populations seems not to be driven by local variation in larval performance.
在决策过程中,动物可能会使用先天或可塑性行为。有人认为这对植食性昆虫非常重要,因为雌性昆虫在选择寄主植物产卵时需要评估大量线索。因此,为了便于选择,通食昆虫可能会利用寄主植物的先天偏好等级与基于早期寄主经验的表型可塑性相结合,但目前还不清楚不同种群在决策过程中是依赖先天因素还是可塑性因素。以前曾发现埃及一个多食蛾种群中的雌蛾会根据幼虫寄主植物的经验在其先天偏好等级中改变对不同植物的偏好。我们研究了 S. littoralis 的一个北部边缘种群(意大利)和一个核心种群(肯尼亚)对三种寄主植物(棉花、卷心菜和豇豆)的先天偏好层次结构,以及该层次结构是否会随着幼虫寄主植物经历的变化而改变,以了解这些特征在不同种群之间是否存在差异以及如何变化。此外,我们还研究了幼虫在这三个种群的三种寄主植物上的表现。意大利种群和肯尼亚种群具有不同的先天偏好等级,这两种等级都不同于之前在埃及种群中发现的等级。此外,在意大利和肯尼亚种群中,产卵雌虫对寄主植物的选择受幼虫食性的影响,但幼虫寄主植物经历并没有像埃及种群那样完全改变其偏好等级。这表明,不仅寄主植物偏好本身,不同种群在选择寄主植物时的表型可塑性也可能不同。我们还发现,不同种群对幼虫食物的反应在某些表现性状上有所不同。然而,只有意大利种群显示出偏好与表现之间的联系,因为它们在最不喜欢的寄主植物上发育较慢。总体而言,不同种群之间的偏好差异似乎并不是由幼虫表现的地方性差异造成的。
期刊介绍:
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution publishes rigorously peer-reviewed research across fundamental and applied sciences, to provide ecological and evolutionary insights into our natural and anthropogenic world, and how it should best be managed. Field Chief Editor Mark A. Elgar at the University of Melbourne is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to researchers, academics and the public worldwide.
Eminent biologist and theist Theodosius Dobzhansky’s astute observation that “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution” has arguably even broader relevance now than when it was first penned in The American Biology Teacher in 1973. One could similarly argue that not much in evolution makes sense without recourse to ecological concepts: understanding diversity — from microbial adaptations to species assemblages — requires insights from both ecological and evolutionary disciplines. Nowadays, technological developments from other fields allow us to address unprecedented ecological and evolutionary questions of astonishing detail, impressive breadth and compelling inference.
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