@inbook {22802, title = {How polyphagous are Costa Rican dry forest saturniid caterpillars? Pp. 369-379 in }, booktitle = {Arthropods of tropical forests: spatio-temporal dynamics and resource use in the canopy}, year = {2003}, pages = {474}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press}, organization = {Cambridge University Press}, address = {Cambridge}, abstract = {

\"The caterpillars of the 31 species that breed in the dry forest of the Area de Conservaci\ón Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica feed on the foliage of 77\% of the 66 woody dicotyledenous families, 51\% of the 240 woody dicotyledenous genera and 47\% of the 370 woody dicotyledenous species available to them in the ACG dry forest. Their degree of polyphagy ranges from that of Automeris zugana caterpillars feeding on 84 species in 66 genera in 26 families to that of 10 caterpillar species having only a single food plant species each (e.g. Copaxa moinieri on Ocotea veraguensis, Schausiella santarosensis on Hymenaea courbaril, Syssphinx mexicana on Acacia collinsi, Copiopteryx semiramis on Manilkara chicle, Caio championi on Bombacopsis quinata). The extreme polyphages, which are almost entirely Hemileucinae, display a two-stage strategy of oviposition on 5-10 species of food plants followed by penultimate and last instar caterpillar movement onto many additional species of food plants. The pattern of food-plant use in the ACG dry forest displayed by these ecologically and geographically widespread large caterpillars is hypothesized to be derived from ecological fitting of immigrant species as they arrive, rather than through contemporary and sustained coevolution among the caterpillars themselves and their food plants. A caterpillar-food plant interaction of this nature is probably characteristic of any diverse tropical forest canopy and many large taxa of caterpillars.\"

}, keywords = {COSTA RICA, ECOLOGY, FOODPLANT, FOODPLANT SPECIFICITY, SATURNIIDAE}, url = {https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20033017296}, author = {Janzen, D.H.}, editor = {Basset, Y. and Novotny, V. and Miller, S.E. and Kitching, R.L.} } @article {21733, title = {Phylogenetic trophic specialization: a robust comparison of herbivorous guilds}, journal = {Oecologia}, volume = {185}, year = {2017}, pages = {551-559}, chapter = {551}, abstract = {

\"Resource specialization is a key concept in ecology, but it is unexpectedly difficult to parameterize. Differences in resource availability, sampling effort and abundances preclude comparisons of incompletely sampled biotic interaction webs. Here, we extend the distance-based specialization index (DSI) that measures trophic specialization by taking resource phylogenetic relatedness and availability into account into a rescaled version, DSI*. It is a versatile metric of specialization that expands considerably the scope and applicability, hence the usefulness, of DSI. The new metric also accounts for differences in abundance and sampling effort of consumers, which enables robust comparisons among distinct guilds of consumers. It also provides an abundance threshold for the reliability of the metric for rare species, a very desirable property given the difficulty of assessing any aspect of rare species accurately. We apply DSI* to an extensive dataset on interactions between insect herbivores from four folivorous guilds and their host plants in Papua New Guinean rainforests. We demonstrate that DSI*, contrary to the original DSI, is largely independent of sample size and weakly and non-linearly related with several host specificity measures that do not adjust for plant phylogeny. Thus, DSI* provides further insights into host specificity patterns; moreover, it is robust to the number and phylogenetic diversity of plant species selected to be sampled for herbivores. DSI* can be used for a broad range of comparisons of distinct feeding guilds, geographical locations and ecological conditions. This is a key advance in elucidating the interaction structure and evolution of highly diversified systems.\"

}, keywords = {DISTANCE-BASED SPECIALIZATION INDEX, FOODPLANT EVOLUTION, FOODPLANT SPECIFICITY, HERBIVORY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA}, doi = {10.1007/s00442-017-3980-7}, author = {Jorge, L.R. and Novotny, V. and Segar, S.T. and Weiblen, G.D. and Miller, S.E. and Basset, Y. and Lewinsohn, T.M.} } @article {21732, title = {Variably hungry caterpillars: predictive models and foliar chemistry suggest how to eat a rainforest}, journal = {Proceedings of the Royal Society B}, volume = {284}, year = {2017}, pages = {20171803}, chapter = {20171803}, abstract = {

\"A long-term goal in evolutionary ecology is to explain the incredible diversity of insect herbivores and patterns of host plant use in speciose groups like tropical Lepidoptera. Here, we used standardized food-web data, multigene phylogenies of both trophic levels and plant chemistry data to model interactions between Lepidoptera larvae (caterpillars) from two lineages (Geometridae and Pyraloidea) and plants in a species-rich lowland rainforest in New Guinea. Model\  parameters were used to make and test blind predictions for two hectares of an exhaustively sampled forest. For pyraloids, we relied on phylogeny alone and predicted 54\% of species-level interactions, translating to 79\% of all trophic links for individual insects, by sampling insects from only 15\% of local woody plant diversity. The phylogenetic distribution of host-plant associations in polyphagous geometrids was less conserved, reducing accuracy. In a truly quantitative food web, only 40\% of pair-wise interactions were described correctly in geometrids. Polyphenol oxidative activity (but not protein precipitation capacity) was important for understanding the occurrence of geometrids (but not pyraloids) across their hosts. When both foliar chemistry and plant phylogeny were included, we predicted geometrid\–plant occurrence with 89\% concordance. Such models help to test macroevolutionary hypotheses at the community level.\"

}, keywords = {FOODPLANT CHEMISTRY, FOODPLANT EVOLUTION, FOODPLANT SPECIFICITY, GEOMETRIDAE, HERBIVORY, NEW GUINEA, POLYPHENOLS, PYRALOIDEA}, doi = {10.1098/rspb.2017.1803}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1803}, author = {Segar, S.T. and Volf, M. and Isua, B. and Sisol, M. and Redmond, C.M. and Rosati, M.E. and Gewa, B. and Molem, K. and Dahl, C. and Holloway, J.D. and Basset, Y. and Miller, S.E. and Weiblen, G.D. and Salminen, J.-P. and Novotny, V.} } @article {21731, title = {Community structure of insect herbivores is driven by conservatism, escalation and divergence of defensive traits in Ficus}, journal = {Ecology Letters}, year = {2017}, type = {Early view}, abstract = {

\"Escalation (macroevolutionary increase) or divergence (disparity between relatives) in trait values are two frequent outcomes of the plant-herbivore arms race. We studied the defences and caterpillars associated with 21 sympatric New Guinean figs. Herbivore generalists were concentrated on hosts with low protease and oxidative activity. The distribution of specialists correlated with phylogeny, protease and trichomes. Additionally, highly specialised Asota moths used alkaloid rich plants. The evolution of proteases was conserved, alkaloid diversity has escalated across the studied species, oxidative activity has escalated within one clade, and trichomes have diverged across the phylogeny. Herbivore specificity correlated with their response to host defences: escalating traits largely affected\  generalists and divergent traits specialists; but the effect of escalating traits on extreme specialists was positive. In turn, the evolution of defences in Ficus can be driven towards both escalation and divergence in individual traits, in combination providing protection against a broad spectrum of herbivores.\"

}, keywords = {AGANAINAE, ALKALOIDS, ASOTA, CHOREUTIDAE, COEVOLUTION, CYSTEINE PROTEASE, DEFENCE, EREBIDAE, FICUS, FOODPLANT SPECIFICITY, HERBIVORY, MORACEAE, NEW GUINEA, POLYPHENOLS, PYRALOIDEA, TRAITS, TRICHOMES}, doi = {10.1111/ele.12875}, author = {Volf, M. and Segar, S.T. and Miller, S.E. and Isua, B. and Sisol, M. and Aubona, G. and {\v S}imek, P. and Moos, M. and Laitila, L. and Kim, J. and Zima_Jr, J. and Rota, J. and Weiblen, G.D. and Wossa, S. and Salminen, J.-P. and Basset, Y. and Novotny, V.} } @article {21632, title = {The Saturniidae of Barro Colorado Island, Panama: a model taxon for studying the long-term effects of climate change?}, journal = {Ecology and Evolution}, volume = {7}, year = {2017}, month = {12/2017}, pages = {9991-10004}, chapter = {9991}, abstract = {

\"We have little knowledge of the response of invertebrate assemblages to climate change in tropical ecosystems, and few studies have compiled long-term data on invertebrates from tropical rainforests. We provide an updated list of the 72 species of Saturniidae moths collected on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama, during the period 1958-2016. This list will serve as baseline data for assessing long-term changes of saturniids on BCI in the future, as 81\% of the\  species can be identified by their unique DNA Barcode Index Number, including four cryptic species not yet formally described. A local species pool of 60 + species breeding on BCI appears plausible, but more cryptic species may be discovered in the future. We use monitoring data obtained by light trapping to analyze recent population trends on BCI for saturniid species that were relatively common during 2009-2016, a period representing \>30 saturniid generations. The abundances of 11 species, of 14 tested, could be fitted to significant time-series models. While the direction of change in abundance was uncertain for most species, two species showed a significant increase over time, and forecast models also suggested continuing increases for most species during\  2017-2018, as compared to the 2009 base year. Peaks in saturniid abundance were most conspicuous during El Ni\ño and La Ni\ña years. In addition to a\  species-specific approach, we propose a reproducible functional classification based on five functional traits to analyze the responses of species sharing similar functional attributes in a fluctuating climate. Our results suggest that the abundances of larger body-size species with good dispersal abilities may increase concomitantly with rising air temperature in the future, because short-lived adults may allocate less time to increasing body temperature for flight, leaving more time available for searching for mating partners or suitable oviposition sites.\"

}, keywords = {BARCODING, CLIMATE CHANGE, COI, DNA, FUNCTIONAL GROUPS, MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD, MONITORING, PANAMA, PHYLOGENY, POPULATION BIOLOGY, RAINFOREST, SATURNIIDAE, SPECIES DELIMITATION, TRAITS}, doi = {10.1002/ece3.3515}, author = {Basset, Y. and Lamarre, G.P.A. and Ratz, T. and Segar, S.T. and Deca{\"e}ns, T. and Rougerie, R. and Miller, S.E. and Perez, F. and Bobadilla, R. and Lopez, Y. and Ramirez, J.A. and Aiello, A. and Barrios, H.} }