Biotic interactions underlie ecosystem structure and function, but predicting interaction outcomes is difficult. We tested the hypothesis that biotic interaction strength increases toward the equator, using a global experiment with model caterpillars to measure predation risk. Across an 11,660-kilometer latitudinal gradient spanning six continents, we found increasing predation toward the equator, with a parallel pattern of increasing predation toward lower elevations. Patterns across both latitude and elevation were driven by arthropod predators, with no systematic trend in attack rates by birds or mammals. These matching gradients at global and regional scales suggest consistent drivers of biotic interaction strength, a finding that needs to be integrated into general theories of herbivory, community organization, and life-history evolution.

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Summary 1.We describe the pattern of colonization of suitable, but currently empty, habitat by a host butterfly and two specialist parasitoids living in a highly fragmented landscape. 2. Using survey data collected over 8 years, field sampling and small-scale experiments we show that the ability of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) to colonize new habitat is intermediate between that of its two larval primary parasitoids. 3. The butterfly forms a classic metapopulation, which the parasitoid Hyposoter horticola experiences as a single patchily distributed host population because of its high rate of dispersal and long colonization distances. In contrast, most of the local butterfly populations are presently inaccessible to the parasitoid Cotesia melitaearum, which has a limited dispersal range and therefore persists only in tightly clustered networks of host populations. 4. At the regional scale, the butterfly may escape C. melitaearum by colonizing empty habitat, but host dispersal does not limit parasitism by H. horticola, which consequently must be limited by local interaction. 5. The parasitoid H. horticola mostly avoids direct competition with C. melitaearum because the majority of H. horticola populations are outside the range of dispersal by current C. melitaearum populations. In contrast, all C. melitaearum populations experience competition with H. horticola.

Studies in crop species show that the effect of plant allelochemicals is not necessarily restricted to herbivores, but can extend to (positive as well as negative) effects on performance at higher trophic levels, including the predators and parasitoids of herbivores. We examined how quantitative variation in allelochemicals (iridoid glycosides) in ribwort plantain, Plantago lanceolata, affects the development of a specialist and a generalist herbivore and their respective specialist and generalist endoparasitoids. Plants were grown from two selection lines that differed ca. 5-fold in the concentration of leaf iridoid glycosides. Development time of the specialist herbivore, Melitaea cinxia, and its solitary endoparasitoid, Hyposoter horticola, proceeded most rapidly when reared on the high iridoid line, whereas pupal mass in M. cinxia and adult mass in H. horticola were unaffected by plant line. Cotesia melitaearum, a gregarious endoparasitoid of M. cinxia, performed equally well on hosts feeding on the two lines of P. lanceolata. In contrast, the pupal mass of the generalist herbivore, Spodoptera exigua, and the emerging adult mass of its solitary endoparasitoid, C. marginiventris, were significantly lower when reared on the high line, whereas development time was unaffected. The results are discussed with regards to (1) differences between specialist and generalist herbivores and their natural enemies to quantitative variation in plant secondary chemistry, and (2) potentially differing selection pressures on plant defense.

Habitat fragmentation and climate change are both prominent manifestations of global change, but there is little knowledge on the specific mechanisms of how climate change may modify the effects of habitat fragmentation, for example, by altering dynamics of spatially structured populations. The long‐term viability of metapopulations is dependent on independent dynamics of local populations, because it mitigates fluctuations in the size of the metapopulation as a whole. Metapopulation viability will be compromised if climate change increases spatial synchrony in weather conditions associated with population growth rates. We studied a recently reported increase in metapopulation synchrony of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) in the Finnish archipelago, to see if it could be explained by an increase in synchrony of weather conditions. For this, we used 23 years of butterfly survey data together with monthly weather records for the same period. We first examined the associations between population growth rates within different regions of the metapopulation and weather conditions during different life‐history stages of the butterfly. We then examined the association between the trends in the synchrony of the weather conditions and the synchrony of the butterfly metapopulation dynamics. We found that precipitation from spring to late summer are associated with the M. cinxia per capita growth rate, with early summer conditions being most important. We further found that the increase in metapopulation synchrony is paralleled by an increase in the synchrony of weather conditions. Alternative explanations for spatial synchrony, such as increased dispersal or trophic interactions with a specialist parasitoid, did not show paralleled trends and are not supported. The climate driven increase in M. cinxia metapopulation synchrony suggests that climate change can increase extinction risk of spatially structured populations living in fragmented landscapes by altering their dynamics.

Summary1. The strength of interaction between the specialist parasitoid Cotesia melitaearum and the host butterfly Melitaea cinxia is influenced by the coincidence of the adult stage of the parasitoid with the larval stage of the host. 2. We show that there is great variation in this developmental synchrony among local populations and among years, ranging from complete synchrony to complete asynchrony. 3. The causal mechanism is early spring temperature, which affects parasitoid development differently than the development of the host. 4. At cool air temperatures the dark-coloured and mobile host larvae benefit from basking in the sun, while the white and immobile parasitoid cocoons develop slowly in shaded microclimates, becoming adults after hosts have pupated and are no longer available for parasitism. At warm temperatures many adult wasps emerge in time to parasitize host larvae. 5. We show that the host-parasitoid synchrony influences subsequent parasitoid population size and the rate of colonization of previously uninhabited host populations, contributing to parasitoid metapopulation dynamics. 6. We detected no direct effect of the phenological synchrony on local host population size, but the synchrony is likely to be important for overall host metapopulation dynamics via variation in the rate of colonization by the parasitoid.

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