Divergence in host adaptive traits has been well studied from an ecological and evolutionary perspective, but identification of the proximate mechanisms underlying such divergence is less well understood. Behavioral preferences for host plants are often mediated by olfaction and shifts in preference may be accompanied by changes in the olfactory system. In this study, we examine the evolution o...

Panels A and B in Supplementary Figure S1 are switched. The panel labels are not switched. Please see a corrected version of Supplementary Figure S1 below. Figure S1 Analysis of host plant volatile composition with cactus rot stage. Cacti were either uninoculated (NI) or inoculated and fermented for one to nine weeks. Peak numbers correspond to the list of volatiles. (A–D) Typical gas chromato-...

Western corn rootworm Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte is an important pest of corn whose larvae exhibit particular quantifiable patterns of locomotion after exposure to, and removal from, host roots and nonhost roots. Using EthoVision software, the behavior and locomotion of the western corn rootworm larvae was analyzed to determine the level of host recognition to germinated roots of di...

Seasonal epizootics of vector-borne pathogens infecting multiple species are ecologically complex and difficult to forecast. Pathogen transmission potential within the host community is determined by the relative abilities of host species to maintain and transmit the pathogen and by ecological factors influencing contact rates between hosts and vectors. Increasing evidence of strong feeding pre...

Source messages intended for a mobile host can be routed in one of two ways. Either the source knows the direct route to the mobile host, and is informed of all location changes by the mobile host (informed routing), or the source directs messages to a home agent that forwards messages to the mobile host (triangle routing). When the rate at which the mobile host changes location and the rate at...

Utilization of a novel plant host by herbivorous insects requires coordination of numerous physiological and behavioral adaptations in both larvae and adults. The recent host range expansion of the crucifer-specialist diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella L. (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae), to the sugar pea crop in Kenya provides an opportunity to study this process in action. Previous studies...

For nitrogen to be transferred from a legume to grass through hyphae of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), as reported for a number of grass/legume combinations, the two species should be linked by a common hyphal network, which gives rise to the question of host–fungus preference. To examine the relative preference of perennial ryegrass and white clover for co-existing AMF, two experiments, a...

Potential hosts for infective juveniles of entomopathogenic nematodes can vary considerably in quality based on the characteristics of the host species/stage, physiological status (e.g. stress, feeding on toxins), and infection status (heterospecific or conspecific infection). In this study, we investigated responses of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema riobrave to hosts (Galleria mello...

The Miocene radiation of C4 grasses under high-temperature and low ambient CO 2 levels occurred alongside the transformation of a largely forested landscape into savanna. This inevitably changed the host plant regime of herbivores, and the simultaneous diversification of many consumer lineages, including Bicyclus butterflies in Africa, suggests that the radiations of grasses and grazers may be ...