Organisms use incomplete information from local experience to assess the suitability of potential habitat sites over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Although ecologists have long recognized the importance of spatial scales in habitat selection, few studies have investigated the temporal scales of habitat selection. In particular, cues in the immediate environment may commonly provi...

Abstract Background and Aims: Hop stunt viroid (HSVd, genus Hostuviroid, family Pospiviroidae) has a wide host range among trees and herbaceous plants. The objectives of this study were to compare biological and physical characteristics of three isolates of HSVd from mulberry, fig and citrus and search for other hosts of this viroid in Iran. Materials and Methods: Plant samples were col...

The association between two or more lineages over evolutionary time is a recurrent theme spanning several different fields within biology, from molecular evolution to coevolution and biogeography. In each `historical association', one lineage is associated with another, and can be thought of as tracking the other over evolutionary time with a greater or lesser degree of fidelity. Examples inclu...

Coniferous trees are often dominant species in both boreal and temperate forests, wherein they play critical roles in ecosystem function. In natural environments, ecosystem stability appears to be the norm, notwithstanding the co-occurrence of insect and microbial species inherently capable of killing their host trees. Adaptive plasticity of host trees involving inducible mechanisms of resistan...

This article was motivated by the invasion of leaf-mining microlepidopteron attacking horse chestnut trees in Europe and the need for a biological control. Following Owen & Lewis (2001, Bull. Math. Biol., 63, 655-684), we consider predation of leafminers by a generalist parasitoid with a Holling Type II functional response. We first identified six equilibrium points and discussed their stabilit...

Persistence and abundance of species is determined by habitat availability and the ability to disperse and colonize habitats at contrasting spatial scales. Favourable habitat fragments are also heterogeneous in quality, providing differing opportunities for establishment and affecting the population dynamics of a species. Based on these principles, we suggest that the presence and abundance of ...

1. Evidence from leaf-mining insects on Fagaceous hosts suggests that range expansions of insects onto introduced trees often involve species that feed on native hosts closely related to the introduced host. 2 . An examination of the herbivorous entomofauna of British trees illustrates that the size of the entomofauna is partially determined by the taxonomic isolation of the host tree.

Herein we report results of transplant experiments that link variation in host plant quality to herbivore fitness at the local scale (among adjacent plants) with the process of local (demic) adaptation at the landscape scale to explain the observed distribution of the specialist gall former Belonocnema treatae (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) within populations of its host plant, Quercus fusiformis. Fi...

The sooty beech scale insect (Ultracoelostoma sp.) (Hemiptera: Margarodidae) exhibits a highly patchy distribution at local and regional scales. A major factor driving this common distributional phenomenon in other phloem-feeding insects is aggregation and local adaptation. The aim of this study was to determine if Ultracoelostoma was locally adapted to its natal host trees, by contrasting the ...