The cabbage moth or the sorrel moth (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)?

TY - JOUR

T1 - The cabbage moth or the sorrel moth (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)?

AU - Harvey, Jeff A.

AU - Hengeveld, Eke

AU - Malčická, Mima

N1 - 6164, TE; Data archiving: data archived at MDA

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - When insect herbivores develop over many generations on the same plant species, their descendants may evolve physiological adaptations that enable them to develop more successfully on that plant species than naive conspecifics. Here, we compared development of wild and lab-reared caterpillars of the cabbage moth, Mamestra brassicae, on a cultivar of cabbage Brassica oleracea (cv. Cyrus) and on a wild plant species, sorrel, Rumex acetosa, on which the wild strain had been collected and reared for two earlier consecutive generations. The lab strain had been reared on the same cabbage cultivar for more than 20 years representing > 200 generations. Survival to adult did not vary with strain or plant species. Both strains, however, developed significantly faster when reared on R. acetosa than B. oleracea. Pupae from the field strain were larger when reared on B. oleracea than on R. acetosa, whereas the identity of the plant species did not matter for the lab strain. Our results show that long-term rearing history on cabbage had little or no effect on M. brassicae performance, suggesting that some generalist herbivores can readily exploit novel plants that may be chemically very different from those on which they have long been intimately associated.

AB - When insect herbivores develop over many generations on the same plant species, their descendants may evolve physiological adaptations that enable them to develop more successfully on that plant species than naive conspecifics. Here, we compared development of wild and lab-reared caterpillars of the cabbage moth, Mamestra brassicae, on a cultivar of cabbage Brassica oleracea (cv. Cyrus) and on a wild plant species, sorrel, Rumex acetosa, on which the wild strain had been collected and reared for two earlier consecutive generations. The lab strain had been reared on the same cabbage cultivar for more than 20 years representing > 200 generations. Survival to adult did not vary with strain or plant species. Both strains, however, developed significantly faster when reared on R. acetosa than B. oleracea. Pupae from the field strain were larger when reared on B. oleracea than on R. acetosa, whereas the identity of the plant species did not matter for the lab strain. Our results show that long-term rearing history on cabbage had little or no effect on M. brassicae performance, suggesting that some generalist herbivores can readily exploit novel plants that may be chemically very different from those on which they have long been intimately associated.

KW - Lepidoptera

KW - Noctuidae

KW - Mamestra brassicae

KW - Brassica oleracea

KW - cabbage

KW - Rumex acetosa

KW - development

KW - national

UR - http://mda.vliz.be/mda/directlink.php?fid=VLIZ_00000444_5911c7e8d95d6

U2 - 10.14411/eje.2016.041

DO - 10.14411/eje.2016.041

M3 - Article

SN - 1210-5759

VL - 113

SP - 320

EP - 324

JO - European Journal of Entomology

JF - European Journal of Entomology

IS - 1

ER -