Invasive stink bug favors naive plants: Testing the role of plant geographic origin in diverse, managed environments.

ABSTRACT: With the introduction and establishment of exotic species, most ecosystems now contain both native and exotic plants and herbivores. Recent research identifies several factors that govern how specialist herbivores switch host plants upon introduction. Predicting the feeding ecology and impacts of introduced generalist species, however, remains difficult. Here, we examine how plant geographic origin, an indicator of shared co-evolutionary history, influences patterns of host use by a generalist, invasive herbivore, while accounting for variation in plant availability. The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys, is a highly polyphagous Asian herbivore and an economically important invasive pest in North America and Europe. In visual surveys of 220 plant taxa in commercial nurseries in

SUBMITTER: Martinson HM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5007670 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature