Does the munch affect the bunch? Using community science to explore insect herbivory and fruit production in an understory plant

Digital, community-sourced natural history records are valuable for understanding species attributes such as phenology and geographic distribution. When these records include photographs, they can also be analysed for individual phenotypes and species interactions to develop or test ecological hypotheses. Here, we use observational and experimental approaches to assess how insect herbivory affects reproductive success in a widespread forest plant, bunchberry (Cornus canadensis). We queried the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and assembled a dataset of 2,578 photographic records of fruiting plants. Of these, 891 showed evidence of insect herbivory, but herbivory was not significantly associated with fruit production. In a field study we monitored 200 plants over five weeks. Herbivory was widespread (78% of plants showed insect feeding), but damage was generally low—only 5% of plants experienced herbivory ≥40% of total leaf area. No relationship was found between natu..., , # Does the munch affect the bunch? Using community science to explore insect herbivory and fruit production in an understory plant

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.w6m905r15](10.5061/dryad.w6m905r15)

## Description of the data and file structure

All data is provided as CSV files.

GBIFSurvey data was visually recorded as herbivore ID, internal and external herbivory intensity, and fruit count from photos accessed through the GBIF database ([https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.cj78zz)](https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.cj78zz)

LongitudinalFieldSurvey data was collected over 5 weeks spanning flowering to fruit ripening. External and internal herbivory intensities were visually estimated, and fruit counts were taken at the end.

SimulatedHerbivory data was collected as a fruit count after fruit ripening, following the manual defoliation of the two treatments. This was a 40% defoliation, performed during flowering for one treatment and during fruit-set for the second treatment.

### Files and variables

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