Great chemistry between us: The link between plant chemical defenses and butterfly evolution.

ABSTRACT: Plants constantly cope with insect herbivory, which is thought to be the evolutionary driver for the immense diversity of plant chemical defenses. Herbivorous insects are in turn restricted in host choice by the presence of plant chemical defense barriers. In this study, we analyzed whether butterfly host-plant patterns are determined by the presence of shared plant chemical defenses rather than by shared plant evolutionary history. Using correlation and phylogenetic statistics, we assessed the impact of host-plant chemical defense traits on shaping northwestern European butterfly assemblages at a macroevolutionary scale. Shared chemical defenses between plant families showed stronger correlation with overlap in butterfly assemblages than phylogenetic relatedness, providing evidence that c

SUBMITTER: van der Linden CFH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8258229 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature