Timing of flowering and intensity of attack by a butterfly herbivore in a polyploid herb.

ABSTRACT: Timing of plant development both determines the abiotic conditions that the plant experiences and strongly influences the intensity of interactions with other organisms. Plants and herbivores differ in their response to environmental cues, and spatial and temporal variation in environmental conditions might influence the synchrony between host plants and herbivores, and the intensity of their interactions. We investigated whether differences in first day of flowering among and within 21 populations of the polyploid herb Cardamine pratensis influenced the frequency of oviposition by the butterfly Anthocharis cardamines during four study years. The proportion of plants that became oviposited upon differed among populations, but these differences were not related to mean flowering phenology w

SUBMITTER: Konig MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4485967 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature