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Individual Trees as Heterogeneous Environments: Adaptation to Herbivory or Epigenetic Noise?

  • Conference paper
Insect Life History Patterns

Part of the book series: Proceedings in Life Sciences ((LIFE SCIENCES))

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the hypothesis that individual host plants are mosaics of varying susceptibilities to parasite and herbivore attack, and that these insects cannot or are not likely to be adapted to all parts of the mosaic at once. Thus, within an individual plant, variation may be an evolved trait that negates the evolutionary advantages of insects which have shorter generation times and greater recombination potential than their host plants. Within-plant variation at all levels (within a leaf, between leaves, between branches) may make the plant appear to be a chameleon of different or changing resistances to herbivore attack. Such variation would pose formidable problems for most herbivores. For example, parasites and herbivores unable to precisely track or discriminate between such variation may either make inappropriate settling decisions and consequently suffer reduced fitness, or, if they discriminate between different plant parts varying in quality, they clump at specific sites on the plant. Due to clumping, herbivores may become more visible to predators, and they may also be forced to engage in competitive interactions for the best resources of the host plant. In each case, the plant benefits by reducing the impact of a debilitating organism. Thus, heterogeneity within a plant may make the plant less apparent to its parasites and herbivores while simultaneously making these same insects more obvious to their predators.

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Authors
  1. Thomas G. Whitham
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, 20742, College Park, Maryland, USA

    Robert F. Denno

  2. Department of Zoology, University of Iowa, 52242, Iowa City, Iowa, USA

    Hugh Dingle

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Whitham, T.G. (1981). Individual Trees as Heterogeneous Environments: Adaptation to Herbivory or Epigenetic Noise?. In: Denno, R.F., Dingle, H. (eds) Insect Life History Patterns. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5941-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5941-1_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-5943-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-5941-1

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