Taper M L, Case T J
Institute of Biological Sciences, Tsukuba University, Sakura-Mura, 305, Ibaraki, Japan.
Dept. of Biology, University of California at San Diego, 92093, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Oecologia. 1987 Jan;71(2):254-261. doi: 10.1007/BF00377292.
Plant species vary tremendously in the number of phytophagous species they support. May (1979) and Price (1980) proposed that some of this variation may be due to variation in biochemical defenses. We find that variation between oak species in leaf tannin levels is positively correlated with 1) variation in the numbers of species of leaf-galling cynipid wasps those trees host; and 2) the density of individual galls per oak leaf. We hypothesize that leaf and gall tannins serve a protective function for cynipids, decreasing the amount of cynipid larval mortality due to fungal infestation. This defensive function would explain the observed positive relationships between oak tannin levels and cynipid diversity as well as cynipid abundance.
不同植物物种所支持的植食性物种数量差异极大。梅（1979年）和普赖斯（1980年）提出，这种差异的部分原因可能在于生化防御机制的差异。我们发现，橡树品种之间叶片单宁含量的差异与以下两点呈正相关：1）这些树木所承载的形成虫瘿的瘿蜂物种数量的差异；2）每片橡树叶上单个虫瘿的密度。我们推测，叶片和虫瘿中的单宁对瘿蜂起到保护作用，减少了因真菌感染导致的瘿蜂幼虫死亡数量。这种防御功能可以解释所观察到的橡树单宁含量与瘿蜂多样性以及瘿蜂数量之间的正相关关系。
