Cates Rex G
Department of Biology, The University of New Mexico, 87131, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Oecologia. 1981 Mar;48(3):319-326. doi: 10.1007/BF00346488.
Host plant preferences for 34 insect herbivore species are reported. Most polyphagous herbivores feeding on annuals, herbaceous perennials, and woody perennials show distinct preferences for the least abundant plant species among their various host plants. In addition, some populations of widely distributed polyphagous species are much more specialized in their diet than host plant lists alone would suggest. The high level of polyphagy on annuals and herbaceous perennials is suggested to be strongly influenced by the unpredictability of the host plant that is, in turn, controlled by environmental variability. Oligophagous herbivores preferred the least abundant woody perennials on the study sites. Ten of the 22 monophagous herbivores preferred the rarest of all the plant species on the same sites.
报告了34种食草昆虫对寄主植物的偏好。大多数以一年生植物、多年生草本植物和多年生木本植物为食的多食性食草动物，对其各种寄主植物中数量最少的植物种类表现出明显的偏好。此外，一些分布广泛的多食性物种的种群在饮食上比仅根据寄主植物清单所显示的更为特化。一年生植物和多年生草本植物上的高度多食性被认为受到寄主植物不可预测性的强烈影响，而寄主植物的不可预测性又受环境变异性的控制。寡食性食草动物更喜欢研究地点中数量最少的多年生木本植物。22种单食性食草动物中有10种更喜欢同一地点所有植物种类中最稀有的那种。
