Leaf-chewing herbivores affect preference and performance of a specialist root herbivore.

ABSTRACT: Plants interact with a diversity of phytophagous insects above- and belowground. By inducing plant defence, one insect herbivore species can antagonize or facilitate other herbivore species feeding on the same plant, even when they are separated in space and time. Through systemic plant-mediated interactions, leaf-chewing herbivores may affect the preference and performance of root-feeding herbivores. We studied how six different leaf-chewing herbivore species of Brassica oleracea plants affected oviposition preference and larval performance of the root-feeding specialist Delia radicum. We expected that female D. radicum flies would oviposit where larval performance was highest, in accordance with the preference-performance hypothesis. We also assessed how the different leaf-chewing herbiv

SUBMITTER: Karssemeijer PN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9226102 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature