Mutualism has its limits: consequences of asymmetric interactions between a well-defended plant and its herbivorous pollinator.

ABSTRACT: Concern for pollinator health often focuses on social bees and their agricultural importance at the expense of other pollinators and their ecosystem services. When pollinating herbivores use the same plants as nectar sources and larval hosts, ecological conflicts emerge for both parties, as the pollinator's services are mitigated by herbivory and its larvae are harmed by plant defences. We tracked individual-level metrics of pollinator health-growth, survivorship, fecundity-across the life cycle of a pollinating herbivore, the common hawkmoth, Hyles lineata, interacting with a rare plant, Oenothera harringtonii, that is polymorphic for the common floral volatile (R)-(-)-linalool. Linalool had no impact on floral attraction, but its experimental addition suppressed ovip

SUBMITTER: Balbuena MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9058551 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature