The role of evolving niche choice in herbivore adaptation to host plants: Literature survey data and R scripts for simulations

Individuals living in heterogeneous environments often choose
microenvironments that provide benefits to their fitness. Theory predicts
that such niche choice can promote rapid adaptation to novel environments
and help maintain genetic diversity. An open question of large applied
importance is how niche choice and niche choice evolution affect the
evolution of insecticide resistance in phytophagous insects. We,
therefore, developed an individual-based model based on phytophagous
insects to examine the evolution of insecticide resistance and
 niche choice via oviposition preferences. To find biologically
realistic parameter ranges, we performed an empirical literature survey on
insecticide resistance in major agricultural pests and also conducted a
density-dependent survival experiment using potato beetles. We find that,
in comparison to a scenario where individuals randomly oviposit eggs on
toxic or non-toxic plants, the evolution of niche choice generally leads
to slower evolution of resistance and facilitates the coexistence of
different phenotypes. Our simulations also reveal that recombination rate
and dominance effects can influence the evolution of both niche choice and
resistance. Thus, this study provides new insights into the effects of
niche choice on resistance evolution and highlights the need for more
studies on the genetic basis of resistance and choice.