Titles from entomology and ecology journals were analysed, testing the effect of Latin and common names, functional groups, geographic location, question marks, humour, and title length on citation rate. Using the Latin names of study organisms in a title decreases a paper's citation rate. There was no effect of the use of common names, question marks, humour, or title length on citation rate. Effects of functional group and geographic location were variable.

Competition can have far-reaching consequences for insect fitness and dispersion. Time-lagged interspecific competition is known to negatively affect fitness, yet time-lagged intraspecific competition is rarely studied outside of outbreak conditions. We tested the impact of competition between larval cohorts of the western tent caterpillar (Malacosoma californicum) feeding on chokecherry (Prunus virginiana). We reared larvae on host plants that either had or did not have feeding damage from tent caterpillars the previous season to test the bottom-up fitness effects of intraspecific competition. We measured host-plant quality to test potential mechanisms for bottom-up effects and conducted field oviposition surveys to determine if female adult tent caterpillars avoided host plants with evidence of prior tent caterpillar presence. We found that time-lagged intraspecific competition impacted tent caterpillar fitness by reducing female pupal mass, which is a predictor of lifetime fitness. We found that plants that had been fed upon by tent caterpillars the previous season had leaves that were significantly tougher than plants that had not been fed upon by tent caterpillars, which may explain why female tent caterpillars suffered reduced fitness on these plants. Finally, we found that there were fewer tent caterpillar egg masses on plants that had tent caterpillars earlier in the season than plants without tent caterpillars, which suggests that adult females avoid these plants for oviposition. Our results confirm that intraspecific competition occurs among tent caterpillars and suggests that time-lagged intraspecific competition has been overlooked as an important component of insect fitness.

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BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

The effects of competition can have far-reaching consequences for individuals, populations, and communities and therefore we should strive toward a deeper understanding of competitive interactions. In some cases, dietary generalists may be predicted to experience weak competition effects because of their ability to use a wide range of host plants. However, competition between insects frequently occurs indirectly, which can hinder insects' abilities to avoid competitive interactions. Therefore, competition may be as strong among dietary generalists as among dietary specialists. Yet competition between insects that are dietary generalists is infrequently studied. We tested for evidence of competitive interactions between two common, temporally separated, generalist insects: the western tent caterpillar (Malacosoma californicum), which feeds early in the season, and the fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea), which feeds later in the season. Both species frequently use a common host plant species (chokecherry) as a preferred host at our field sites. We tested the relative strength of bottom-up effects resulting from competitive interactions between these two generalists with laboratory-rearing trials at the relevant time of year for each insect. We recorded three common fitness measures (development time, pupal mass, and survival) for caterpillars reared on chokecherry with no damage from either of our focal species, with tent caterpillar damage, and with fall webworm damage. To test the strength of top-down pressures on fall webworm larval fitness and any potential interactions with bottom-up effects, we reared larvae in the field either exposed to or protected from predators on host plants that either did or did not have tent caterpillars feeding on them earlier in the season. We found evidence of bottom-up fitness effects on tent caterpillars and top-down and bottom-up fitness effects on fall webworms confirming that tent caterpillars and fall webworms compete indirectly. Tent caterpillars had lower pupal mass when reared on leaves from shrubs damaged by fall webworms. Fall webworms had lower pupal mass and longer development time when reared on leaves from shrubs damaged by tent caterpillars. In field trials, fall webworms reared on shrubs damaged by tent caterpillars had a lower survival and pupal mass. We show evidence of indirect competition in temporally separated generalists through leaf quality (bottom-up effects) and natural enemies (top-down effects).