Stressful juvenile developmental conditions can affect performance and fitness later in life. In holometabolous insects such as butterflies, development under stressful conditions may lead to smaller adult size, lower reproductive output and shorter lifespan. However, how larval developmental stress

The purpose of this study was to track year-to-year variation in aphid abundance on the host plant Ligusticum porteri (Apiaceae). We censused arthropod abundance on the flowering stalks of L. porteri weekly in June-August from 2012 to 2020. The censuses took place in ten L. porteri populations near

The purpose of this study was to track year-to-year variation in aphid abundance on the host plant Ligusticum porteri (Apiaceae). We censused arthropod abundance on the flowering stalks of L. porteri weekly in June-August from 2017 to 2020. The censuses took place in ten L. porteri populations near

Bumble bee queens initiate nests solitarily and transition to living socially once they successfully rear their first cohort of offspring. Bumble bees are disproportionately important for early season pollination, and many populations are experiencing dramatic declines. In this system, the onset of

Maintaining the diversity of wild bees is a priority for preserving ecosystem function and promoting stability and productivity of agroecosystems. However, wild bee communities face many threats and beekeeping could be one of them, because honey bees may have a strong potential to outcompete wild po

One possible effect of climate change is the generation of a mismatch in the seasonal timing of interacting organisms, owing to species-specific shifts in phenology. Despite concerns that plants and pollinators might be at risk of such decoupling, there have been few attempts to test this hypothesis

Simultaneous or sequential attack by herbivores and microbes is common in plants. Many seed plants exhibit a defence trade-off against chewing herbivorous insects and leaf-colonizing ( phyllosphere ) bacteria, which arises from cross-talk between the phytohormones jasmonic acid (JA, induced by many

Many plants that bear hidden or recessed floral nectar experience nectar robbing, the removal of nectar by a floral visitor through holes pierced in the corolla. Although robbing can reduce plant reproductive success, many studies fail to find such effects. We outline three mechanistic hypotheses th

Premise of the Study – Flowering time may influence pollination success and seed set through a variety of mechanisms, including seasonal changes in total pollinator visitation or the composition and effectiveness of pollinator visitors. Methods – We investigated mechanisms by which changes in flower

Climate change is shifting the environmental cues that determine the phenology of interacting species. Plant-pollinator systems may be susceptible to temporal mismatch if bees and flowering plants differ in their phenological responses to warming temperatures. While the cues that trigger flowering a

Altered precipitation patterns associated with anthropogenic climate change are expected to have many effects on plants and insect pollinators, but it is unknown if effects on pollination are mediated by changes in water availability. We tested the hypothesis that impacts of climate on plant pollina

The objective of this study is to understand how climate cues affect the abundance and phenology of aphids and the arthropods with which they interact. These data were collected in 20 populations of the host plant (Ligusticum porteri) along an elevation gradient near Gothic, CO, USA. We randomly-sel

Data come from fourteen sites in the West Elk Mountains of Colorado, USA. The study aimed to identify the factors regulating phenology of plants and cavity-nesting insects, and to determine the likelihood of asynchrony between flowering and pollinator emergence under climate change. Numbers of flowe

1. Cultivation of bioenergy feedstocks is a growing land-use worldwide, yet we have a poor understanding of how bioenergy crop management practices affect biodiversity. This knowledge gap is particularly acute for candidate cellulosic bioenergy feedstocks, such as tree plantations, and for organisms

This dataset contains data and scripts that supplement the publication Lichtenberg et al. (2020) Competition for nectar resources does not affect bee foraging tactic constancy. Ecological Entomology. DOI: 10.1111/een.12866 Please cite the above article if you use any of the included data or code.

A longstanding question in ecology is how species interactions are structured within communities. Although evolutionary theory predicts close size matching between floral nectar tube depth and pollinator proboscis length of interacting species, such size matching has seldom been shown and explained

Prof. David Inouye has been collecting data on the abundance and timing of flowers that fall within permanent plots at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), in Gothic, Colorado, USA, from 1973 to present. During the growing season, flowers of each species are counted approximately every o

Prof. Rebecca (Becky) Irwin has been collecting data on the abundance and timing of bees in permanent sites near the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab (RMBL), Gothic, Colorado, USA, from 2009 to present. During the flight season, we use pan traps and netting every two weeks to estimate bee abundance by

Patterns of insect herbivory may follow predictable geographical gradients, with greater herbivory at low latitudes. However, biogeographic studies of insect herbivory often do not account for multiple abiotic factors (e.g. precipitation, soil nutrients) that could underlie gradients. We tested for

The global trade of species promotes diverse human activities but also facilitates the introduction of potentially invasive species into new environments. As species ignore national boundaries, unilateral national decisions concerning species trade set the stage for transnational species invasion wi