In light of the wide-scale replacement of native plants in North America with introduced, invasive species and noninvasive ornamental plants that evolved elsewhere, we compared the value of native and introduced plants in terms of their ability to serve as host plants for Lepidoptera. Insect herbivores such as Lepidoptera larvae are critically important components of terrestrial food webs and any reduction in their biomass or diversity due to the loss of acceptable host plants is predicted to reduce the production of the many insectivores in higher trophic levels. We conducted an exhaustive search of host records in the literature. We used the data we gathered to rank all 1385 plant genera that occur in the mid-Atlantic states of the United States by their ability to support Lepidoptera richness. Statistical comparisons were made with Welch's test for equality of means. Woody plants supported more species of moths and butterflies than herbaceous plants, native plants supported more species than introduced plants, and native woody plants with ornamental value supported more Lepidoptera species than introduced woody ornamentals. All these differences were highly significant. Our rankings provide a relative measure that will be useful for restoration ecologists, landscape architects and designers, land managers, and landowners who wish to raise the carrying capacity of particular areas by selecting plants with the greatest capacity for supporting biodiversity. Clasificación del Uso de Plantas Nativas Versus Introducidas por LepidópterosResumen: A la luz del reemplazo a gran escala de plantas nativas en Norte América con especies de plantas ornamentales introducidas, invasoras y no invasoras, que evolucionaron en otra parte, comparamos el valor de plantas nativas e introducidas en términos de su habilidad para funcionar como plantas huésped de Lepidoptera. Los insectos herbívoros como las larvas de lepidópteros son componentes críticamente importantes para las redes tróficas terrestres y se predice que cualquier reducción en su biomasa o diversidad debido a la pérdida de plantas huésped aceptables disminuirá la producción de muchos insectívoros en niveles tróficos superiores. Realizamos una búsqueda exhaustiva de registros de huéspedes en la literatura. Utilizamos los datos recabados para clasificar a los 1385 géneros de plantas que ocurren en los estados del medio Atlántico de los Estados Unidos por su habilidad para soportar riqueza de Lepidoptera. Realizamos comparaciones estadísticas con la prueba de Welch para igualdad de medias. Las plantas leñosas soportaron más especies de polillas y mariposas que las plantas herbáceas, las plantas nativas soportaron más especies que las especies introducidas, y las plantas leñosas nativas con valor ornamental soportaron más especies de Lepidópteros que las ornamentales leñosas introducidas. Todas estas diferencias fueron muy significativas. Nuestras clasificaciones proporcionan una medida relativa que seráútil para ecólogos restauradores, arquitectos y diseñadores de paisaje...
Abstract. The impact of non-native plant invasions on ecosystems has been controversial because obvious local effects have not yet led to the global extinction of any native plant species on continents and large islands. We suggest that extinction is not the appropriate measure of impact on ecosystem function and present evidence that non-native plant invasions or the replacement of native plants with non-native ornamentals results in significant bottom-up reductions of energy available for local food webs. Using replicated common gardens we compared Lepidoptera species richness and abundance on native plants, non-native congeners of those natives, and non-native species with no close relatives in the study area. Non-native plants supported significantly fewer caterpillars of significantly fewer specialist and generalist species even when the non-natives were close relatives of native host plants. However, the effect size was smaller in the latter category indicating phylogenetic similarity to local natives may positively impact herbivory. Cluster analysis revealed that a non-native plant congener often supports a lepidopteran community that is a subset of the similar, but more diverse community found on its native congener. The proportion of the Lepidoptera community consisting of specialist species was about five times larger across native species within sites compared to non-native plant species. In addition, species accumulation trajectories suggested that in a fully sampled community the differences between the Lepidoptera supported by native and non-native plants may be even greater than presented here.
Functional food webs are essential for the successful conservation of ecological communities, and in terrestrial systems, food webs are built on a foundation of coevolved interactions between plants and their consumers. Here, we collate published data on host plant ranges and associated host plant-Lepidoptera interactions from across the contiguous United States and demonstrate that among ecosystems, distributions of plant-herbivore interactions are consistently skewed, with a small percentage of plant genera supporting the majority of Lepidoptera. Plant identities critical for retaining interaction diversity are similar and independent of geography. Given the importance of Lepidoptera to food webs and ecosystem function, efficient and effective restoration of degraded landscapes depends on the inclusion of such ‘keystone’ plants.
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