Dietary specialization is conditionally associated with increased ant predation risk in a temperate forest caterpillar community.

ABSTRACT: The enemy-free space hypothesis (EFSH) contends that generalist predators select for dietary specialization in insect herbivores. At a community level, the EFSH predicts that dietary specialization reduces predation risk, and this pattern has been found in several studies addressing the impact of individual predator taxa or guilds. However, predation at a community level is also subject to combinatorial effects of multiple-predator types, raising the question of how so-called multiple-predator effects relate to dietary specialization in insect herbivores. Here, we test the EFSH with a field experiment quantifying ant predation risk to insect herbivores (caterpillars) with and without the combined predation effects of birds. Assessing a community of 20 caterpillar species, we use model sele

SUBMITTER: Singer MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6854387 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature