ArticleNature ecology & evolution2020
Host use diversification during range shifts shapes global variation in Lepidopteran dietary breadth.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Combined phylogenetic and geographic data can predict plant-pest interactions with high accuracy.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Climate and regional plant richness drive diet specialization in butterfly caterpillars.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Global Changes in Lepidopteran Phylogenetic Diversity Across Space and Time.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- Generalism in species interactions is more the consequence than the cause of ecological success.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Generalism accumulates on the path to success.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Niche breadth explains the range size of European-centred butterflies, but dispersal ability does not.Global ecology and biogeography : a journal of macroecology · 2023Article
- Century-long butterfly range expansions in northern Europe depend on climate, land use and species traits.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Host association, environment, and geography underlie genomic differentiation in a major forest pest.Evolutionary applications · 2022Article
- Pesticide resistance in arthropods: Ecology matters too.Ecology letters · 2022Article
- Mosaics of climatic stress across species' ranges: tradeoffs cause adaptive evolution to limits of climatic tolerance.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Climate-driven variation in biotic interactions provides a narrow and variable window of opportunity for an insect herbivore at its ecological margin.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- On the macroecological significance of eco-evolutionary dynamics: the range shift-niche breadth hypothesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Are phylogenies resolved at the genus level appropriate for studies on phylogenetic structure of species assemblages?Plant diversity · 2021Article
- Microclimate and resource quality determine resource use in a range-expanding herbivore.Biology letters · 2021Article
- Seasonal Patterns of Host Plant Use in an Assemblage of Heliconiini Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) in a Neotropical forest.Neotropical entomology · 2021Article
- Nonadaptive host-use specificity in tropical armored scale insects.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Global variation in the thermal tolerances of plants.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
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Abstract
Niche breadths tend to be greater at higher latitudes. This pattern is frequently assumed to emerge from the cumulative effects of multiple, independent local adaptation events along latitudinal environmental gradients, although evidence that generalization is more beneficial at higher-latitude locations remains equivocal. Here I propose an alternative hypothesis: that latitudinal variation in niche breadths emerges as a non-adaptive consequence of range shift dynamics. Based on analysis of a global dataset comprising more than 6,934 globally distributed dietary records from 4,410 Lepidopteran species, this hypothesis receives robust support. Population-level dietary niche breadths are better explained by the relative position of the population within its geographic range and the species' poleward range extent than by the latitude of diet observation. Broader diets are observed closer to poleward range limits and in species that have attained higher latitudes. Moreover, latitudinal variation in diet breadth is more prominent within and among species undergoing rapid, contemporary range shifts than for species with more stable ranges. Together these results suggest that latitudinal patterns in niche breadth represent a transient and emergent property of recent geographic range dynamics and need not require underlying gradients in selective agents or fitness trade-offs. The results have wide-ranging implications for global ecology and for anticipating changes in host use during ongoing distributional shifts of pests and disease vectors.
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