10.5061/DRYAD.PS639
Forister, Matthew L.
University of Nevada Reno
Scholl, Cynthia F.
University of Nevada Reno
Jahner, Josh P.
University of Nevada Reno
Wilson, Joseph S.
University of Nevada Reno
Fordyce, James A.
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Gompert, Zach
Texas State University
Narala, Divya R.
University of Nevada Reno
Buerkle, C. Alex
University of Wyoming
Nice, Chris C.
Texas State University
Data from: Specificity, rank preference and the colonization of a
non-native host plant by the Melissa blue butterfly
Dryad
dataset
2013
exotic species
Lycaeides melissa
Oviposition
Recent
2013-02-21T17:34:54Z
2013-02-21T17:34:54Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2476-8
2410 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Animals often express behavioral preferences for different types of food
or other resources, and these preferences can evolve or shift following
association with novel food types. Shifts in preference can involve at
least two phenomena: a change in rank preference or a change in
specificity. The former corresponds to a change in the order in which
hosts are preferred, while a shift in specificity can be an increase in
the tendency to utilize multiple hosts. These possibilities have been
examined in relatively few systems that include extensive population-level
replication. The Melissa blue butterfly, Lycaeides melissa, has colonized
exotic alfalfa, Medicago sativa, throughout western North America. We
assayed host preferences of 229 females from 10 populations associated
with novel and native hosts. In four out of five native-associated
populations, a native host was preferred over the exotic host, while
preference for a native host characterized only two out of five of the
alfalfa-associated populations. Across all individuals from
alfalfa-associated populations, there appears to have been a decrease in
specificity: females from these populations lay fewer eggs on the native
host and more eggs on the exotic relative to females from native-host
populations. However, females from alfalfa-associated populations did not
lay more eggs on a third plant species, which suggests that preferences
for specific hosts in this system can potentially be gained and lost
independently. Geographic variation in oviposition preference in L.
melissa highlights the value of surveying a large number of populations
when studying the evolution of a complex behavioral trait.
PreferenceDataPreference data across populations and hosts. First column
contains population labels as in Fig. 1 of the associated manuscript; the
numbers of eggs laid on the three plant types are given in the next
columns. Each row corresponds to a single female from a single preference
arena.
western North America