Female fecundity variation affects reproducibility of experiments on host plant preference and acceptance in a phytophagous insect.

ABSTRACT: Reproducibility is a scientific cornerstone. Many recent studies, however, describe a reproducibility crisis and call for assessments of reproducibility across scientific domains. Here, we explore the reproducibility of a classic ecological experiment-that of assessing female host plant preference and acceptance in phytophagous insects, a group in which host specialization is a key driver of diversification. We exposed multiple cohorts of Pieris napi butterflies from the same population to traditional host acceptance and preference tests on three Brassicaceae host species. Whereas the host plant rank order was highly reproducible, the propensity to oviposit on low-ranked hosts varied significantly even among cohorts exposed to similar conditions. Much variation could be attributed t

SUBMITTER: Schapers A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5326532 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature