Reproductive behaviour indicates specificity in resource use: phylogenetic examples from temperate and tropical insects

Specificity (= the degree of ecological specialisation) is one of the fundamental concepts of the science of ecology. Ambiguities on how to define and measure specificity have however complicated respective research efforts. Here we propose that, in insects, a behavioural trait –adult oviposition latency in captivity without a favourable host plant – correlates with a species’ specificity in larval host use. In the absence of a suitable host, monophagous insects are expected to wait for a long time before commencing oviposition, with the long waiting time corresponding to careful host location behaviour in nature. Polyphagous insects, in contrast, should be selected for an increased oviposition rate at the expense of the quality of oviposition substrate encountered and will on average have a short latency time. Using experimentally derived data on oviposition latency, we performed a phylogenetically informed analysis based on Bayesian inference to show that this variable correlates with...生态专化性（Specificity，即生态特化程度）是生态学的核心概念之一。然而，针对其定义与测量方法的歧义，却给相关研究工作造成了阻碍。本研究提出，在昆虫类群中，一项行为性状——无适宜寄主植物条件下人工饲养的成虫产卵潜伏期——与物种的幼虫寄主利用专化性存在关联。当缺乏适宜寄主植物时，单食性昆虫（monophagous insects）通常会在开始产卵前等待较长时间，这种较长的等待时长对应其野外环境中审慎的寄主搜寻行为。与之相反，多食性昆虫（polyphagous insects）会因自然选择倾向于提升产卵速率，而以所接触产卵基质的质量为代价，因此其平均产卵潜伏期相对较短。本研究利用实验获得的产卵潜伏期数据，开展了基于贝叶斯推断（Bayesian inference）的系统发育信息分析（phylogenetically informed analysis），结果表明该变量与……