Many specialist herbivores eat foods that are apparently "low-quality". The compensatory benefits of a poor diet may include protection from natural enemies. Several bee lineages specialize on pollen of the plant family Asteraceae, which is known to be a poor-quality food. Here we tested the hypothe

Nestedness and modularity are measures of ecological networks whose causative effects are little understood. We analyzed antagonistic plant–herbivore bipartite networks using common gardens in two contrasting environments comprised of aspen trees with differing evolutionary histories of defence agai

The arrival-departure process of bees on flowers and the immigration-extinction process of species on islands are contrasted, and the value of the stochastic, species-level approach to community composition is briefly discussed.

Abstract. 1. Mating patterns in a natural population of checkerspot butterflies, Euphydryas editha Boisduval, were investigated by dusting male external genitalia with fluorescent dyes and examining mated females under UV light. 2. These dyes may have diverse applications in studies of insect popula

ABSTRACT Male mating success as a function of genotype is an important fitness component. It can be studied in wild populations, in species for which a given group of progeny has exactly one father, by determining genotypes of wild-caught mothers and of sufficient numbers of their progeny. Here, we

For a brief period in 1981 Bombus appositus queens visited Ipomopsis aggregata, a hummingbird-pollinated species with floral characteristics typical of that pollination syndrome. This behavior was not observed in other years. Despite the fact that Ipomopsis lacks floral features associated with bee

Experiments in Colorado and New York streams assessed the effects of predaceous stoneflies on benthic invertebrate community establishment in enclosures providing uncolonized habitat. Aspects of prey community structure measured were density, species richness, relative species abundance, and body si

A major link between larval ecology and mating systems in butterflies is the environment in which larvae hatch. It determines when a female should lay her eggs, and therefore when she will be receptive to mating. The fitness of males is determined chiefly by access to fertilizable females, and there

Model and experimental results suggest that, in certain wing regions, increased melanization can reduce body temperature in Pieris; this effect of melanization is exactly the opposite of that found in other Pierid butterflies that use their wings as solar absorbers.

Results show that Pieris require thoracic temperature in order to take off and fly, and achieve these elevated temperatures by basking, and suggest that a re-evaluation of the functional significance of melanization in Pieris is needed.

Patterns of egg distribution and survivorship were examined for six generations of a univoltine population of the pierid butterfly Colias alexandra, finding that among clumped individuals, survivorship is two times greater for the first or previously-laid individual than the second or subsequently-