Abstract:
We used European geometrid moths (>630 species) as a model group to investigate how life history traits linked to larval host plant use (i.e., diet breadth and host-plant growth form) and seasonal life cycle (i.e., voltinism, overwintering stage and caterpillar phenology) are related to adult body size in holometabolous insect herbivores. To do so, we applied phylogenetic comparative methods to account for shared evolutionary history among herbivore species. We further categorized larval diet breadth based on the phylogenetic structure of utilized host plant genera. Our results indicate that species associated with woody plants are, on average, larger than herb feeders and increase in size with increasing diet breadth. Obligatorily univoltine species are larger than multivoltine species, and attain larger sizes when their larvae occur exclusively in the early season. Furthermore, the adult body size is significantly smaller in species that overwinter in the pupal stage compared to those that overwinter as eggs or caterpillars. In summary, our results indicate that the ecological niche of holometabolous insect herbivores is strongly interrelated with body size at maturity.
摘要:
我们使用欧洲地理蛾(>630种)作为模型组来研究生活史特征如何与幼虫寄主植物的使用相关(即,饮食宽度和寄主植物生长形式)和季节性生命周期(即,伏特主义,越冬阶段和毛虫物候)与全代谢昆虫草食动物的成年体型有关。要做到这一点,我们应用系统发育比较方法来解释食草动物物种之间的共同进化史。我们根据利用的寄主植物属的系统发育结构进一步对幼虫的饮食宽度进行了分类。我们的结果表明,与木本植物相关的物种是,平均而言,比草药饲养者大,尺寸随着饮食宽度的增加而增加。强制性的单伏尔汀物种比多伏尔汀物种大,当它们的幼虫仅在早期季节出现时,它们会达到更大的尺寸。此外,与以卵或毛虫越冬的物种相比,在the期越冬的物种的成年体型明显较小。总之,我们的结果表明,全代谢昆虫草食动物的生态位与成熟时的体型密切相关。