Preference for C4 shade grasses increases hatchling performance in the butterfly, Bicyclus safitza

Nokelainen, Ossi; Ripley, Bradford Sherman; Van Bergen, Erik; Osborne, Colin P; Brakefield, Paul M

Title: Preference for C4 shade grasses increases hatchling performance in the butterfly, Bicyclus safitza
Creator: Nokelainen, Ossi
Creator: Ripley, Bradford Sherman
Creator: Van Bergen, Erik
Creator: Osborne, Colin P
Creator: Brakefield, Paul M
Date Issued: 2016
Date: 2016
Type: article
Type: text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61424
Identifier: vital:28025
Identifier: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.2235/full
Description: The Miocene radiation of C4 grasses under high-temperature and low ambient CO2 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 evolutionary linked. We examined mechanisms for this plant–herbivore interaction with the grass-feeding Bicyclus safitza in South Africa. In a controlled environment, we tested oviposition preference and hatchling performance on local grasses with C3 or C4 photosynthetic pathways that grow either in open or shaded habitats. We predicted preference for C3 plants due to a hypothesized lower processing cost and higher palatability to herbivores. In contrast, we found that females preferred C4 shade grasses rather than either C4 grasses from open habitats or C3 grasses. The oviposition preference broadly followed hatchling performance, although hatchling survival was equally good on C4 or C3 shade grasses. This finding was explained by leaf toughness; shade grasses were softer than grasses from open habitats. Field monitoring revealed a preference of adults for shaded habitats, and stable isotope analysis of field-sampled individuals confirmed their preference for C4 grasses as host plants. Our findings suggest that plant–herbivore interactions can influence the direction of selection in a grass-feeding butterfly. Based on this work, we postulate future research to test whether these interactions more generally contribute to radiations in herbivorous insects via expansions into new, unexploited ecological niches.
Format: 10 pages
Format: pdf
Language: English
Relation: Ecology and evolution
Relation: Nokelainen, O., Ripley, B.S., Bergen, E., Osborne, C.P. and Brakefield, P.M., 2016. Preference for C4 shade grasses increases hatchling performance in the butterfly, Bicyclus safitza. Ecology and evolution, 6(15), pp.5246-5255
Relation: Ecology and evolution 6 vol. 15 no. 5246 5255 2016 2045-7758
Rights: Ecology and evolution
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY) Open Access License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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