Inheritance and plasticity of adult host acceptance in Yponomeuta species: implications for host shifts in specialist herbivores

Abstract

Changes in host acceptance is an important factor in the host specialization of phytophagous insects, and knowledge of the genetic organization of this behaviour is necessary in order to understand how host shifts occur. Here we describe the inheritance of adult host acceptance (oviposition) in three closely related species of Yponomeuta Latreille (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae), and their interspecific padellus still deposited more than half of their egg masses on E. europaeus . Reciprocal hybrids did not differ in their host acceptance, indicating that the trait is autosomal. We further studied the effect of larval food on adult host acceptance ('Hopkins host selection principle') in split full-sib F1 families. Larval diet influenced oviposition only in one of two hybrid crosses. The F1 hybrid of Y. padellus × Y. cagnagellus , reared on Prunus spinosa L . , deposited a significantly lower percentage of egg masses on E. europaeus compared to their full-sib sisters fed with E. europaeus . We did not find this in the reciprocal cross. However, still more than half of the egg masses are deposited on E. europaeus by hybrids that have no experience on this host. We conclude that the semi-dominant character of acceptance of E. europaeus and a tendency of Rosaceae-feeding Yponomeuta to deposit egg masses on this host may have created the opportunity for the host shift of the predecessor of Y. cagnagellus from Rosaceae to the Celastraceae. This shift may have been further facilitated by a weak tendency of adults to oviposit on their larval food source.

No effect of larval experience on adult host preferences in Polygonia c‐album (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): on the persistence of Hopkins’ host selection principle

“…3 ), and removing the high-ranked U. dioica from the analyses of the lower-ranked plants did not improve the results. Curiously, as mentioned earlier, a number of recent studies have found effects of larval feeding experience on patterns of adult oviposition ( Anderson et al , 1995;Rietdorf & Steidle, 2002;Akhtar & Isman, 2003;Gandolfi et al , 2003;Chow et al , 2005;Hora et al , 2005;Olsson et al , 2006;Facknath & Wright, 2007 ). This is in line with many other studies that have investigated the hypothesis, but failed to find any support for it (e.g.…”

Genetic mechanisms preventing the fusion of ecotypes even in the face of gene flow

“…One reason for this lack of clarity is that empirical data for the genetics of ecological adaptation vary among species (e.g., governed by autosomal loci or sex-linked genes, few or many genes, genes of small or large effect, or genes with dominance, epistatic interactions or no dominance)15. However, the present results and a growing number of studies have demonstrated that phytophagous insects have different genetic bases between preference and performance with different modes of inheritance7816171819202122. This implies that hybrids are likely to express different, and often functionally incompatible, phenotypes for preference and performance traits.…”

Oviposition site preference and developmental performance of a gall‐inducing leafhopper on galled and non‐galled host plants

“…Similar to Hopkins' host selection principle, a more general hypothesis, 'natal habitat preference induction' (NHPI) was proposed to explain that experience with particular stimuli during the larval or early adult stages increases preference for the same stimuli, because of the difficulty in distinguishing experiences during these stages (Davis & Stamps, 2004). Recent studies have supported NHPI in several holometabolous insects, such as Lepidoptera (Anderson et al, 1995(Anderson et al, , 2013Akhtar & Isman, 2003;Chow et al, 2005;Hora et al, 2005;Olsson et al, 2006;Moreau et al, 2008), Coleoptera (Rietdorf & Steidle, 2002;Coyle et al, 2011), Diptera (Facknath & Wright, 2007), and Hymenoptera (Li et al, 2009). Recent studies have supported NHPI in several holometabolous insects, such as Lepidoptera (Anderson et al, 1995(Anderson et al, , 2013Akhtar & Isman, 2003;Chow et al, 2005;Hora et al, 2005;Olsson et al, 2006;Moreau et al, 2008), Coleoptera (Rietdorf & Steidle, 2002;Coyle et al, 2011), Diptera (Facknath & Wright, 2007), and Hymenoptera (Li et al, 2009).…”