Large differences in the composition of herbivore communities and seed damage in diploid and autotetraploid plant species

Abstract

Herbivory is one of the key interactions affecting plant fitness. Despite the large amount of data available on the effects of herbivores on various plant groups, we still know very little information about the interactions of herbivores with individuals having different ploidy levels. We studied the relationship of diploid and tetraploid Centaurea phrygia in natural and experimental garden conditions to the community of pre‐dispersal seed predators developing in flower heads of the plants. In addition, we collected a set of data on flowering phenology, and flower head morphology and chemistry to investigate potential mechanisms underlying the differences between cytotypes. The two cytotypes are strongly differentiated in their flower head morphology and chemistry as well as in their flowering phenology, with flower heads of diploids being larger, containing more secondary metabolites and flowering later. Also, the two cytotypes strongly differed in the composition of insect communities in the flower heads and tetraploids suffered higher seed damage than the diploids. The differences between cytotypes in seed damage were generally consistent across datasets, indicating that the differences are not due to differences in the habitats in which the cytotypes occur but are due to differences in particular biological characteristics of the plants. The diversity and composition of insect communities, however, strongly varied between years and environments. Flowering phenology could explain part, but not all of the differences observed between cytotypes, indicating that other factors such as flower head morphology or chemistry could also play a role. The study indicated that the differences between the two cytotypes are important determinant of the plant–herbivore interactions in the system. Although we identified multiple factors that could explain the different associations, further research is needed to assess the relative importance of each of these factors. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 115, 270–287.

Butterfly oviposition preference is not related to larval performance on a polyploid herb

“…; Nuismer and Thompson ; Münzbergová ; Münzbergová et al. ), but none have, to our knowledge, investigated if larval performance was affected by the ploidy level of the host plant.…”

Relative importance of drought, soil quality, and plant species in determining the strength of plant–herbivore interactions

“…Münzbergová & Skuhrovec, 2013;Münzbergová et al, 2015). We also aimed to identify the importance of leaf toughness and specific leaf area (SLA), as two important plant traits possibly affecting plant-herbivore interactions, in explaining the effects.…”

“…In addition, the group is known for very diverse plant-herbivore interactions, which have been previously studied (e.g. Münzbergová & Skuhrovec, 2013;Münzbergová et al, 2015). Finally, many species of the group are invasive in different parts of the world (e.g.…”

Can enemy release explain the invasion success of the diploid Leucanthemum vulgare in North America?

“…Yet, in contrast to a generally larger plant size of polyploids (Ramsey and Ramsey 2014), the diploid L. vulgare produced more shoots and flower heads than the tetraploid L. ircutianum and our results suggest that the higher number of shoots of L. vulgare contributed to the higher attack rates of L. vulgare by D. stolidum and C. trisulcatus. Several field studies found differences in herbivore attack between closely related taxa differing in ploidy level (Thompson et al 1997;Nuismer and Thompson 2001;Münzbergová 2006;Arvanitis et al 2008;Halverson et al 2008;Arvanitis et al 2010;Richardson and Hanks 2011;Münzbergová et al 2015). However, depending on plant taxa, herbivore species or even the population examined, polyploid taxa were either less, more or equally attacked by herbivores than the closely related diploids.…”