10.5061/DRYAD.0CFXPNW4K
Raguso, Robert
0000-0003-2066-3269
Cornell University
Balbuena, Maria Sol
University of Buenos Aires
Mutualism has its limits: consequences of asymmetric interactions between
a well-defended plant and its herbivorous pollinator
Dryad
dataset
2022
FOS: Biological sciences
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
DEB 1342792
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
DEB 1342873
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
https://ror.org/03cqe8w59
2022-03-28T00:00:00Z
2022-03-28T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0166
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6385586
76001 bytes
5
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Concern for pollinator health has focused on social bees and their
agricultural services, but not all pollinators are bees, and their
ecosystem services also promote biodiversity and conservation. Pollinating
herbivores generate ecological conflicts when they utilize the same plant
as a nectar source and larval host. We tracked individual-level metrics of
pollinator health – growth, survivorship, fecundity – across the life
cycle of a pollinating herbivore, the hawkmoth Hyles lineata, through its
interactions with Oenothera harringtonii, a rare plant polymorphic for the
floral volatile (R)-(-)-linalool. Linalool had no impact on moth
attraction to O. harringtonii flowers but suppressed oviposition on
experimentally supplemented plants. Leaves of O. harringtonii showed
robust resistance against herbivory by H. lineata from leaf-disc to
wholeplant scales, through poor larval growth and survivorship. Higher
larval performance on other Oenothera species indicates that constitutive
herbivore resistance by O. harringtonii is not generic. Leaf volatiles
differed among populations of O. harringtonii but were not induced by
larval herbivory. Elagitannins and other phenolics varied among leaf, bud
and seed tissues but showed no evidence of herbivore induction. Our
findings highlight asymmetric plant-pollinator interactions and the
importance of third parties, such as alternative host plants, in
maintaining pollinator health.
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