Evolutionary irony: evidence that 'defensive' plant spines act as a proximate cue to attract a mammalian herbivore.

ABSTRACT: Many plants produce structural defenses to deter feeding by herbivores. However, many previous studies testing whether spines are effective at defending against mammalian herbivores have produced equivocal results. These ambiguous results are hypothesized to be due to herbivore counter-adaptations. We investigated potential counter-adaptations in a population of white-throated woodrats Neotoma albigua that specialize on cactus by investigating feeding behavior and preference for cacti varying in spinescence. Neotoma albigula exhibited a unique behavior of clipping cactus spines, which renders these defenses ineffective. Strikingly, these woodrats chose to collect spiny cacti over experimentally de-spined cacti, demonstrating that spines act as a proximal cue that attracts woo

SUBMITTER: Kohl KD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8046181 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature