ArticleEcology and evolution2017
Polyphagy and diversification in tussock moths: Support for the oscillation hypothesis from extreme generalists.
Article in Ecology and evolution, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Transcriptomic divergences of larval labial salivary glands facilitate host-plant range oscillations between specialist and generalist Helicoverpa species.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Edible caterpillars and their host plants: ethnobotanical insights in Kwilu, Democratic Republic of Congo.Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine · 2025Article
- Range size positively correlates with temperature and precipitation niche breadths but not with dietary niche breadth in triatomine insects, vectors of Chagas disease.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2024Article
- Bird lineages colonizing urban habitats have diversified at high rates across deep time.Global ecology and biogeography : a journal of macroecology · 2022Article
- Evolved Transcriptional Responses and Their Trade-Offs after Long-Term Adaptation of Bemisia tabaci to a Marginally Suitable Host.Genome biology and evolution · 2022Article
- A global food plant dataset for wild silkmoths and hawkmoths and its use in documenting polyphagy of their caterpillars (Lepidoptera: Bombycoidea: Saturniidae, Sphingidae).Biodiversity data journal · 2020Article
- Species-complex diversification and host-plant associations in Bemisia tabaci: A plant-defence, detoxification perspective revealed by RNA-Seq analyses.Molecular ecology · 2018Article
- Variably hungry caterpillars: predictive models and foliar chemistry suggest how to eat a rainforest.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Polyphagy and diversification in tussock moths: Support for the oscillation hypothesis from extreme generalists.Ecology and evolution · 2017Article
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7 authors.
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Abstract
Theory on plasticity driving speciation, as applied to insect-plant interactions (the oscillation hypothesis), predicts more species in clades with higher diversity of host use, all else being equal. Previous support comes mainly from specialized herbivores such as butterflies, and plasticity theory suggests that there may be an upper host range limit where host diversity no longer promotes diversification. The tussock moths (Erebidae: Lymantriinae) are known for extreme levels of polyphagy. We demonstrate that this system is also very different from butterflies in terms of phylogenetic signal for polyphagy and for use of specific host orders. Yet we found support for the generality of the oscillation hypothesis, in that clades with higher diversity of host use were found to contain more species. These clades also consistently contained the most polyphagous single species. Comparing host use in Lymantriinae with related taxa shows that the taxon indeed stands out in terms of the frequency of polyphagous species. Comparative evidence suggests that this is most probably due to its nonfeeding adults, with polyphagy being part of a resulting life history syndrome. Our results indicate that even high levels of plasticity can drive diversification, at least when the levels oscillate over time.
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