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Article: Host preference and larval performance of the salicylate-using leaf beetle Phratora vitellinae.
- Article from:
- Ecology
- Article date:
- March 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Ecological Society of America. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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INTRODUCTION
Herbivorous insects have diversified greatly during the last 60 x [10.sup.6] yr. They now constitute a large proportion of terrestrial arthropods. However, most of them feed on only a few host plants (Strong et al. 1984). The high degree of specialization in insect herbivores has yet to be explained. The predation hypothesis proposes that herbivore specialization has been caused by natural selection imposed by predators and parasites. This may occur if specialist herbivores suffer less predation than do generalists (Bernays and Graham 1988). Many herbivores use host plant compounds for their own chemical defense (Duffey 1980, Brown 1984, Pasteels et al. ...