Host plant identity and condition shape phytophagous insect communities on urban maple (Acer spp.) trees

The Predictability of Phytophagous Insect Communities: Host Specialists as Habitat Specialists

The difficulties specialized phytophagous insects face in finding habitats with an appropriate host should constrain their dispersal. Within the concept of metacommunities, this leads to the prediction that host-plant specialists should sort into local assemblages according to the local environmental conditions, i.e. habitat conditions, whereas assemblages of host-plant generalists should depen...

A Plant Root Warmer for Studying Phytophagous Insect Development and Fecundity at Temperatures Below Host Plant Tolerance

Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 81(6): 950-953 (1988) ABSTRACT A simple root-warming device maintains the plants' roots at a higher temperature than that at which the rest of the plant is held. This permits the host plant to retain turgor, not wilt, and therefore remain suitable for and attractive to phytophagous insects. The technique was demonstrated in a development and fecundity test using the cotto...

A general model for host plant selection in phytophagous insects.

We develop a general theoretical framework for exploring the host plant selection behaviour of herbivorous insects. This model can be used to address a number of questions, including the evolution of specialists, generalists, preference hierarchies, and learning. We use our model to: (i) demonstrate the consequences of the extent to which the reproductive success of a foraging female is limited...

Pharmacy research at URI: mining red maple (Acer rubrum) trees for novel therapeutics to manage diabetes.

Wolbachia in two insect host-parasitoid communities.

Wolbachia form a group of intracellular bacteria that alter reproduction in their arthropod hosts. Two major phylogenetic subdivisions (A and B) of Wolbachia occur. Using a polymerase chain reaction assay we surveyed for the A and B group Wolbachia in 82 insect species from two temperate host-parasitoid communities (food webs) and a general collection of Lepidoptera caught at a light trap. One ...