Native or nonnative host plants: What is better for a specialist moth?

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

“…There are 702 described species of Crotalaria, of which 64 are found in South America (le Roux et al, 2013). Though there is no systematic information on how many species of Crotalaria U. ornatrix can feed on, literature reports indicate that it has been able to feed on all 14 species so far presented in the laboratory, even species introduced from the Paleotropics, but there are no comprehensive studies of host plant use in the field (Sourakov, 2015;Trigo et al, 2017). Females lay their eggs on the first few leaves below the inflorescence, and first instars feed mainly on leaf tissue.…”

“…Pyrrolizidine alkaloid concentration in larval food has been shown to alter defence levels and male pheromone titres, so these secondary metabolites are associated with components of both larval and adult fitness (Conner et al, 1981;González et al, 1999). Crotalaria species are known to vary as a resource for U. ornatrix, both in nutritional compounds and PA concentration (Martins et al, 2015;Trigo et al, 2017;Verçosa et al, 2019).…”