Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Biology
Cross-Host Correlations And Multivariate Effects Of Herbivore Specialization, Daniel J. Zydek
Cross-Host Correlations And Multivariate Effects Of Herbivore Specialization, Daniel J. Zydek
USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations
The distribution of insect herbivores among plant hosts is largely nonrandom: most herbivores have limited sets of hosts within one or a few plant families. This host use specialization is reinforced by traits that confer differential fitness across host plant species. Classic explanations for herbivore specialization predict that evolutionary trade-offs reinforce these relationships by imposing costs in the form of reduced potential fitness on alternative hosts, due to negative genetic correlations in fitness across hosts. This prediction that trade-offs constrain host use in herbivores can be tested with experimental evolution, by showing the direct evolutionary effects of host manipulation on …