Oviposition trials of Euphydryas phaeton on Plantago lanceolata

Understanding the circumstances under which insect herbivores will adopt a novel host plant is a longstanding question in basic and applied ecology. Though there has been ample study of regional differences in host preference across numerous insect herbivores, the extent to which intraspecific variation in plant species shape these patterns is relatively less well known. In parts of its range the Baltimore checkerspot Euphydryas phaeton uses English plantain Plantago lanceolata, a novel host plant, in addition to its native host, White turtlehead Chelone galbra. We offered female butterflies from each region the non-native host lpant sourced from both regions and compared their oviposition behavior. The non-native host was near universally rejected by butterflies in the region where only the native plant is used. In the region where both hosts are used, plants from that same region were preferred relative to plants from the other region. This suggests that regional variation in host pla...探究植食性昆虫采用新寄主植物的情境条件，是基础与应用生态学领域长期存在的经典科学问题。尽管学界已针对众多植食性昆虫的寄主偏好区域差异开展了充分研究，但植物物种的种内变异在多大程度上塑造这些偏好模式，迄今仍相对缺乏深入认知。巴尔的摩棋盘蛱蝶（Euphydryas phaeton）在其分布区的部分区域中，除原生寄主白龟花（Chelone glabra）外，还会利用非原生寄主植物长叶车前草（Plantago lanceolata，俗称英国车前）。本研究为各分布区的雌性蝴蝶提供了采自两个区域的该非原生寄主植物，并对比了它们的产卵行为。结果显示，在仅分布原生寄主的区域，蝴蝶几乎普遍拒食该非原生寄主；而在两种寄主均有分布的区域，蝴蝶更偏好采自本区域的非原生寄主植物。这表明寄主植物的区域变异在……