Larval feeding behavior and leaf components that affect the survival of <i>Pieris macdunnoughii</i> on the invasive mustard <i>Thlaspi arvense</i>
Abstract
Pieris macdunnoughii, a butterfly native to the Rock Mountains in Colorado, is a specialist on mustard plants. An invasive mustard, Thlaspi arvense, introduced approximately 100 years ago creates an evolutionary trap for P. macdunnoughii due to the chemical signals that encourage ovipositioning, but it does not support larval development. Such interactions suggest larvae will develop means to successfully feed on T. arvense. First instar feeding behavior on T. arvense was compared to behavior on native host plants, Cardamine cordifolia and Descurainia incana. In laboratory trials, larvae were given T. arvense or C. cordifolia and photographed in two hour intervals for gut content. The results show that larvae fill their guts soon after encountering C. cordifolia, but for T. arvense larvae eat only small amounts of leaves and hardly fill their guts, exhibiting deterrent properties. Similar patterns of herbivory were observed in field trials where larvae were placed on either T. arvense or C. cordifolia, though larvae in the lab filled their guts more than those in the field. In a feeding assay with sinigrin, a glucosinolate believed to be the precursor in a metabolic pathway that produces hydrogen cyanide, 50μmol of sinigrin per gram of leaf mass were added to T. arvense, C. cordifolia, and D. incana leaves and fed to larvae along with control leaves painted with water. The results suggest larvae perform best on D. incana despite added sinigrin and sinigrin has deterrent effects for all species and increases larval death.
Local Knowledge Graph (12 entities)
Related Works
Items connected by shared entities, co-authorship, citations, or semantic similarity.
Pre- and post-ingestive defenses affect larval feeding on a lethal invasive host plant
Phytochemical correlates of herbivory in a community of native and naturalized cruciferae
Fitness costs of butterfly oviposition on a lethal non-native plant in a mixed native and non-native plant community
Novel host plant unmasks heritable variation in plant preference within an insect population
Data from: Evolution of specialization: a phylogenetic study of host range in the red milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetraophthalmus)
Data from: Fitness costs and benefits of a non-native floral resource for subalpine solitary bees
Early Control of Alfalfa Weevil
Native Plant Revegetation Guide for Colorado
Colorado's Natural Heritage: Rare and Imperiled Animals, Plants, and Plant Communities
References (14)
4 in Knowledge Hub, 10 external