We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Vestiges of an ancestral host plant: preference and performance in the butterfly Polygonia faunus and its sister species P. c-album.
- Authors
NYLIN, SÖREN; SÖDERLIND, LINA; GAMBERALE‐STILLE, GABRIELLA; AUDUSSEAU, HÉLÈNE; CELORIO‐MANCERA, MARIA DE LA PAZ; JANZ, NIKLAS; SPERLING, FELIX A. H.
- Abstract
1. In the study of the evolution of insect-host plant interactions, important information is provided by host ranking correspondences among female preference, offspring preference, and offspring performance. Here, we contrast such patterns in two polyphagous sister species in the butterfly family Nymphalidae, the Nearctic Polygonia faunus, and the Palearctic P. c-album. 2. These two species have similar host ranges, but according to the literature P. faunus does not use the ancestral host plant clade - the 'urticalean rosids'. Comparisons of the species can thus test the effects of a change in insect-plant associations over a long time scale. Cage experiments confirmed that P. faunus females avoid laying eggs on Urtica dioica (the preferred host of P. c-album), instead preferring Salix, Betula, and Ribes. 3. However, newly hatched larvae of both species readily accept and grow well on U. dioica, supporting the general theory that evolutionary changes in host range are initiated through shifts in female host preferences, whereas larvae are more conservative and also can retain the capacity to perform well on ancestral hosts over long time spans . 4. Similar rankings of host plants among female preference, offspring preference, and offspring performance were observed in P. c-album but not in P. faunus. This is probably a result of vestiges of larval adaptations to the lost ancestral host taxon in the latter species. 5. Female and larval preferences seem to be largely free to evolve independently, and consequently larval preferences warrant more attention.
- Subjects
INSECT-plant relationships; POLYGONIA; HOST plants; PALEARCTIC; OVIPARITY in insects; INSECT larvae; NEARCTIC ecozone
- Publication
Ecological Entomology, 2015, Vol 40, Issue 3, p307
- ISSN
0307-6946
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/een.12187