Ecological Factors Promoting Polyphagy in Insect Herbviores

促进草本昆虫多食的生态因素

• 批准号: 0642348
• 负责人: John Lill
• 金额: $ 41.65万
• 依托单位: George Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-02-01 至 2012-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0642348&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Ecological; Factors; Promoting; Polyphagy; Insect

Because most caterpillars feed on a very small subset of the plant species in their environment, the existence of species with broad diets (generalists) is enigmatic. In this project, a set of generalist forest caterpillars will be used to test two alternative hypotheses for how their broad diets are maintained: the 'ecological tradeoffs hypothesis' and the 'risk-spreading hypothesis.' To test these hypotheses, the survival, growth, and reproduction of four caterpillar species will be examined on eight unrelated host plant at two sites over three years. The risk of attack from natural enemies (predators and parasites) will be compared among host plants at multiple life stages. In addition, the background pattern of host plant preference will be quantified through field censuses of caterpillars at each site to determine if insect preferences are adaptive. The results of this study will illuminate the unresolved debate over the importance of natural enemies in the evolution of insect diet breadth. Because a large number of economic pests are generalists, developing our understanding of how host plant associations develop and are maintained can aid long-term biological control efforts. An important facet of this project is the development and implementation of an elementary education module on insect evolutionary ecology. In addition, the project will train a team of undergraduates in ecological research.

由于大多数毛毛虫以其环境中的一小部分植物物种为食，因此饮食广泛的物种（通才）的存在是神秘的。在这个项目中，一组通才森林毛毛虫将用于检验两个关于其广泛饮食的替代假设：“生态折衷假设”和“持风险的假设”。为了检验这些假设，将在三年内在两个地点的八个不相关的寄主植物上检查四种毛毛虫物种的生存，生长和繁殖。在多个生命阶段，将比较寄主植物之间的天然敌人（捕食者和寄生虫）攻击的风险。此外，将通过每个地点的毛毛虫的现场普查来量化宿主植物偏好的背景模式，以确定昆虫的偏好是否是自适应的。 这项研究的结果将阐明关于自然敌人在昆虫饮食广度演变中的重要性的尚未解决的辩论。由于大量的经济害虫是通才，因此我们对寄主植物协会如何发展和维持的理解发展可以帮助长期的生物控制工作。该项目的一个重要方面是开发和实施昆虫进化生态学的基础教育模块。此外，该项目将培训一个生态研究的本科生团队。