Mayhew P J.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2001 Apr 1;16(4):165-167. doi: 10.1016/s0169-5347(00)02099-1.
When theory predicts which phenotypes are well adapted to a given environment, the data do not always match the predictions. Host-plant selection by herbivorous insects is one such example. Herbivorous insects often appear to make poor choices about where their offspring should develop. New evidence presented by Scheirs et al. suggests that adult insects can choose oviposition sites that enhance their own long-term fitness at the expense of their individual offspring. This suggests that herbivorous insects might be genuinely bad mothers, that host choice is nonetheless adaptive, and that theory needs to incorporate new assumptions about host effects on adult performance.
当理论预测哪些表型能很好地适应特定环境时，数据并不总是与预测相符。食草昆虫对寄主植物的选择就是这样一个例子。食草昆虫似乎常常在其后代应该在哪里发育的问题上做出糟糕的选择。舍尔等人提出的新证据表明，成年昆虫可以选择产卵地点，以牺牲其个体后代为代价来提高自身的长期适应性。这表明食草昆虫可能真的是糟糕的母亲，尽管寄主选择具有适应性，但理论需要纳入关于寄主对成虫表现影响的新假设。
