Thiemann Danielle M, Cipollini Don
Department of Biological Sciences, Wright State University, Dayton, OH 45435, USA.
Insects. 2025 Mar 21;16(4):331. doi: 10.3390/insects16040331.
The introduction of novel plant species to new habitats may have consequences for native herbivores. We examined the impact of , a Eurasian invader of forest understories and edges in North America, on adult oviposition behavior and on larval preference and the performance of , a univoltine butterfly that specializes on plants in the Brassicaceae. We compared the usage of by this butterfly to that of one of its common native hosts, , and additionally explored the impact of drought and larval age on the larval success of these hosts. In the field, adults oviposited on the native host preferentially earlier in the season, but they strongly preferred later in the season and laid more eggs overall and in multiples more often on this plant. Larvae strongly preferred to feed on leaves of over in the laboratory and survived to pupation at a high rate on it. Conversely, larvae fed little and died when offered . Larvae preferentially chose tissues of droughted over well-watered plants, but drought stress had no impact on larval mass and survival to pupation. Larvae showed no preference for droughted or non-droughted and while drought stress tended to extend survival on this plant, all larvae still died on it. Older larvae were no better at feeding and surviving on than young larvae. Our results indicate that currently serves as an ecological trap for , being both highly attractive to ovipositing adults yet lethal to larvae. This effect could cause both local declines in the abundance of this butterfly and drive selection for the altered behavior of adults and larvae to either avoid or better tolerate this plant.
将新的植物物种引入新栖息地可能会对本地食草动物产生影响。我们研究了一种欧亚大陆的物种（北美森林林下植被和边缘地带的入侵者）对一种单化性蝴蝶成虫产卵行为、幼虫偏好以及生长表现的影响，这种蝴蝶专门以十字花科植物为食。我们将这种蝴蝶对该物种的利用情况与其常见本地寄主之一的利用情况进行了比较，并进一步探究了干旱和幼虫龄期对这些寄主上幼虫生长成功的影响。在野外，成虫在季节早期优先在本地寄主上产卵，但在季节后期它们强烈偏好该物种，并在这种植物上总体产卵更多且更频繁地产下多枚卵。在实验室中，幼虫强烈偏好取食该物种的叶子而非本地寄主的叶子，并且在其上面能以很高的比例存活到化蛹。相反，当提供本地寄主的叶子时，幼虫很少取食并死亡。幼虫优先选择干旱处理的该物种的组织而非水分充足的植株，但干旱胁迫对幼虫体重和化蛹存活率没有影响。幼虫对干旱或未干旱处理的本地寄主没有偏好，并且虽然干旱胁迫倾向于延长幼虫在这种植物上的存活时间，但所有幼虫最终仍在其上死亡。大龄幼虫在取食和在本地寄主上存活方面并不比小龄幼虫更好。我们的结果表明，该物种目前对这种蝴蝶而言是一个生态陷阱，它对产卵成虫极具吸引力，但对幼虫却是致命的。这种影响可能导致这种蝴蝶在当地数量减少，并促使成虫和幼虫的行为发生改变，以避免或更好地耐受这种植物。
