Experimental assemblage of novel plant-herbivore interactions: ecological host shifts after 40 million years of isolation.

ABSTRACT: Geographic isolation is the first step in insect herbivore diet specialization. Such specialization is postulated to increase insect fitness, but may simultaneously reduce insect ability to colonize novel hosts. During the Paleocene-Eocene, plants from the order Zingiberales became isolated either in the Paleotropics or in the Neotropics. During the Cretaceous, rolled-leaf beetles diversified in the Neotropics concurrently with Neotropical Zingiberales. Using a community of Costa Rican rolled-leaf beetles and their Zingiberales host plants as study system, we explored if previous geographic isolation precludes insects to expand their diets to exotic hosts. We recorded interactions between rolled-leaf beetles and native Zingiberales by combining DNA barcodes and field records for 7450 beetl

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Robledo C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5793930 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature