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Interactions Between Megaherbivores And Microherbivores: Elephant Browsing Reduces Host Plant Quality For Caterpillars, H. Hrabar, Johan T. Du Toit

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Direct effects of herbivory, and indirect effects through induced responses to herbivory, can both influence the susceptibility of plants to subsequent attacks by herbivores. There has, however, been very little research (if any) to investigate how the large-scale effects of browsing by megaherbivores (>1000 kg body mass) on woody plants might influence the subsequent use of those plants by phytophagous insects. We conducted a field study in Kruger National Park, South Africa, to investigate whether browsing by elephants (Loxodonta africana) on mopane trees (Colophospermum mopane) had any influence on the subsequent selection of those trees by ovipositing mopane moths …