Ecological trade‐offs in development and defence in a specialist moth when feeding on four congeneric host plants

Pareja, Martín

doi:10.1111/eea.13132

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Crotalaria pallida and E. zinckenella are known to interact throughout the Americas, where C. pallida is exotic (Segarra‐Carmona & Barbosa 1990). It is possible that E. zinckenella is more restricted to C. pallida , while U. ornatrix can use a range of different Crotalaria species (Pareja 2022), and could suggest that the importance of different herbivores will vary spatially. Therefore, different herbivores could act as keystone herbivores in different communities that vary in plant species composition (Poelman & Kessler 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct and indirect plant defenses reduce damage by a generalist but not by a specialist pod borer

Pareja

Rezende

2022

Biotropica

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The efficiency of different plant defenses is expected to vary depending on the combination and abundance of herbivores. Effectiveness of ant-mediated defenses can also depend on ant activity and local ant assemblage, which can vary due to human activities such as intensive grazing. We used the plant Crotalaria pallida (Fabaceae), its two pod-boring herbivores and the ants that visit the extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) to understand how chemical defense and ant-plant associations affect plant damage. We hypothesized causal relationships between plant chemical defense, ant presence on plants and herbivore damage in scenarios of constitutive and induced plant defenses and tested the different possible relationships using path analysis. The constitutive model explained the data more adequately, and each plant defense had different effects on each herbivore species. First, chemical defense significantly reduced damage by the generalist pod borer Etiella zinckenella but not by the specialist Utetheisa ornatrix. Second, ant presence reduced damage by the generalist, but had no effect on damage by the specialist. Third, a larger number of pods on the plant increased ant presence, as expected since more pods results in more EFNs. Finally, we show that these density-dependent responses by ants mediate indirect cascades on herbivory and generate context-specific responses reducing damage by E. zinckenella in sites with cattle grazing. In synthesis, we highlight that plant defenses have distinct effects on co-occurring herbivores and that indirect defenses can mediate ecological cascades that generate context dependency in the efficiency of different defenses.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct and indirect plant defenses reduce damage by a generalist but not by a specialist pod borer

Pareja

Rezende

2022

Biotropica

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“…For toxic plant generalists, there may often be a trade-off between the nutritional quality of a potential food and the availability of toxins for sequestration (i.e. highly nutritional foods often do not contain toxins for sequestration) [5,[8][9][10][11]. It has been well demonstrated that, when faced with such a tradeoff, toxic plant generalists engage in diet mixing, yielding protection from parasitism or predation [5,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A nutrition–defence trade-off drives diet choice in a toxic plant generalist

Carlson

Agrawal

2023

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Plant toxicity shapes the dietary choices of herbivores. Especially when herbivores sequester plant toxins, they may experience a trade-off between gaining protection from natural enemies and avoiding toxicity. The availability of toxins for sequestration may additionally trade off with the nutritional quality of a potential food source for sequestering herbivores. We hypothesized that diet mixing might allow a sequestering herbivore to balance nutrition and defence (via sequestration of plant toxins). Accordingly, here we address diet mixing and sequestration of large milkweed bugs ( Oncopeltus fasciatus ) when they have differential access to toxins (cardenolides) in their diet. In the absence of toxins from a preferred food (milkweed seeds), large milkweed bugs fed on nutritionally adequate non-toxic seeds, but supplemented their diet by feeding on nutritionally poor, but cardenolide-rich milkweed leaf and stem tissues. This dietary shift corresponded to reduced insect growth but facilitated sequestration of defensive toxins. Plant production of cardenolides was also substantially induced by bug feeding on leaf and stem tissues, perhaps benefitting this cardenolide-resistant herbivore. Thus, sequestration appears to drive diet mixing in this toxic plant generalist, even at the cost of feeding on nutritionally poor plant tissue.

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“…For toxic plant generalists, there may often be a trade-off between the nutritional quality of a potential food and the availability of toxins for sequestration (i.e., highly nutritional foods often do not contain toxins for sequestration) (Ballabeni et al, 2001;Pareja, 2022;Rodrigues et al, 2010;Rodrigues & Freitas, 2013;Singer et al, 2004). We hypothesized that toxic plant generalists engage in diet mixing between nutritionally superior non-toxic foods and nutritionally inferior toxic foods to balance nutrition and defense.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sequestration drives diet choice in a toxic plant generalist

Carlson

Agrawal

2022

Preprint

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Many herbivores sequester plant toxins, and this occurs along a gradient of specialization including “toxic plant generalists” that also consume non-toxic hosts. We hypothesized that availability of toxins for sequestration may trade off with nutritional quality to shape dietary choices in a Lygaeid bug. In the absence of toxins (cardenolides) from a preferred food (milkweed seeds), bugs increased feeding on nutritionally poor, but cardenolide-rich milkweed plant tissue, corresponding to lower growth but greater sequestration. While bugs feeding on only milkweed plant tissue sequestered lower cardenolides than those feeding on seeds, they sequestered more diverse and less polar compounds. Cardenolide production was also induced by feeding on plant tissues, which may have downstream effects on future herbivory and sequestration. Accordingly, sequestration is a driver of diet choice in this toxic plant generalist, even at the cost of feeding on nutritionally poor plant tissue; reciprocally, plants defensively respond to such feeding choices.

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Ecological trade‐offs in development and defence in a specialist moth when feeding on four congeneric host plants

Cited by 3 publications

References 68 publications

Direct and indirect plant defenses reduce damage by a generalist but not by a specialist pod borer

Direct and indirect plant defenses reduce damage by a generalist but not by a specialist pod borer

A nutrition–defence trade-off drives diet choice in a toxic plant generalist

Sequestration drives diet choice in a toxic plant generalist

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