Evolution of insect‐plant relationships ‐ a devil's advocate approach*

Jermy, T.

doi:10.1111/j.1570-7458.1993.tb00686.x

Cited by 83 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…This is in contrast to the learning processes during lifetime in higher bees with regard to flower odours (Vogel 1983;Williams 1983). Vogel (1993) agrees with Jermy (1993) on the limited role of insects in the development of mimetic analogues. It is interesting to note that whereas honey bees are attracted to flowers by a blend of volatiles, they can be a mixture of ubiquitous green volatiles such as (E)-2-hexenal and 1-octen-3-ol and simple metabolites produced by many plant species including linalool, methyl salicylate and benzylalcohol (Pham-Delègue et al 1992).…”

Section: Attractionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Evolution of plant volatile production in insect-plant relationships

Harrewijn¹,

Minks²,

Mollema

1994

Chemoecology

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Summary. The production of volatile secondary plant substances during the evolution of terrestrial plants is reviewed in regard to the defensive systems of plants to microorganisms and herbivores. Plant volatiles can be produced by both anabolic and catabolic processes. Although attraction of pollinators is a well-studied phenomenon, functions of volatiles range from excretion of waste products to the production of compounds attracting natural enemies of herbivores. During the evolution of the angiosperms a diversity of volatiles were selected to defend generative parts against microorganisms. Many of these allomones were related to or even identical with sex pheromones of insects. As a result flowers of angiosperms became utilized as a mating site. Consequently insects visiting flowers became involved in pollination, facilitating the steps from anemophily to entomophily. The efficiency of entomophily was increased because of nutritional rewards.An evolutionary scenario for the impact of plant volatiles on insects is presented and the role of volatile allomones in the establishment of plant-insect relationships is emphasized by (1) their strong antimicrobial properties, (2) strategies to protect symbiotic microorganisms, (3) their function as repellents and deterrents, (4) the use of volatile allomones as kairomones. These facts speak for an adaptation of insects to plant physiology and a limited importance of phytophagous insects in selection pressure upon plants. Herbivorous insects have realized specific adaptations to be able to discriminate between complex odour blends, but the utilization of chemical groups among insect taxa is different.The main theories on plant chemical defence do not discuss the impact of volatiles on host plant selection and may be apt to revision when pheromones, allomones, kairomones and synomones are not taken into account.

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Section: Attractionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Evolution of plant volatile production in insect-plant relationships

Harrewijn¹,

Minks²,

Mollema

1994

Chemoecology

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“…With reference to evolution, Jermy (1976Jermy ( , 1984Jermy ( , 1993 claims that plants exert strong selection on herbivorous insects, but there is little evidence to suggest that herbivorous insects exert strong selection on plants, either in the past or in the present. His alternative hypothesis ('the sequential evolution hypothesis') holds that plants evolved first, insects evolved in response, but insects have little or no effect on plant evolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insect‐plant interactions on a planet of weeds

McEvoy

2002

Entomologia Exp Applicata

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Two conflicting views confront ecologists and evolutionary biologists on the degree of symmetry in interactions between plants and phytophagous insects. The symmetrical view holds that insects and plants have strong effects on one another's evolutionary and ecological dynamics. Thus, herbivores are regarded as a major influence on plant distribution and abundance in contemporary ecosystems, and coevolution is commonly invoked to explain adaptive radiation in plants and insects, host specialization in insects, as well as much of the morphological and chemical variety observed in plants. The asymmetrical view acknowledges that plants have major effects on insects, but claims that insects seldom impose significant effects on plants. Proponents of the asymmetric view tend to ignore or discount insect-plant interactions in communities and ecosystems altered by human impacts. If we recognize the scope and scale of human impacts, and ways in which these impacts change insect-plant interactions, then our views about symmetry or asymmetry in insect-plant interactions will change. To understand, predict, and manage insect herbivory we need to study it in all its manifestations. In particular, the study of interactions involving alien species is both an urgent priority for environmental management and potentially a source of ecological insights on the role of herbivores in plant population and community dynamics. A complete theory of insect/host plant interactions must explain and predict interactions both within and beyond the native range. Such a theory might guide efforts to deal with environmental problems stemming from rapid rates of extinction and homogenization of the world's biota.

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“…'Coevolution' has also been used to demonstrate joint speciation of interacting lineages, or cospeciation Clayton et al, 1999;Page, 2003). However, the extent to which phytophagous insects and the plants with which they interact exert selection on one another is complex, highly varied among lineages, and unclear (Jermy, 1984(Jermy, , 1993Ballabeni et al, 2003). In this study, we infer a phylogeny of gall-inducing thrips on Australian Acacia and test hypotheses concerning how this plant-insect assemblage has evolved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Australian gallinducing thrips are phytophagous insects that have evolved strategies permitting specific utilisation of desert Acacia species for food and shelter and for these reasons gallinduction imposes a level of phylogenetic constraint (Cornell, 1983;Jermy, 1993;Farrell and Mitter, 1998a;Craig et al, 2001;Ward et al, 2003). Host race formation is apparent in gall-thrips on Acacia (Crespi et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evolutionary conservation of associations between plant and phytophagous insect groups is a central theme in biology and provides a platform for testing hypotheses rich in scope (Futuyma and Moreno, 1988;Jermy, 1993;Kelley et al, 2000;Craig et al, 2001;Johnson et al, 2002;Nyman, 2002;Ward et al, 2003;Zerega et al, 2005;Jousselin et al, 2006;McLeish et al, 2007). Coevolution theory (Ehrlich and Raven, 1964) was the historic impetus driving work endeavouring to penetrate factors explaining radiations of both phytophagous insects and their host-plants via selective responses to one another over a relatively long period.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Parallel diversification of Australian gall-thrips on Acacia

McLeish

Crespi

Chapman

et al. 2007

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution

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The diversification of gall-inducing Australian Kladothrips (Insecta: Thysanoptera) on Acacia has produced a pair of sister-clades, each of which includes a suite of lineages that utilize virtually the same set of 15 closely related host plant species. This pattern of parallel insect-host plant radiation may be driven by cospeciation, host-shifting to the same set of host plants, or some combination of these processes. We used molecular-phylogenetic data on the two gall-thrips clades to analyze the degree of concordance between their phylogenies, which is indicative of parallel divergence. Analyses of phylogenetic concordance indicate statistically-significant similarity between the two clades. Their topologies also fit with a hypothesis of some degree of host-plant tracking. Based on phylogenetic and taxonomic information regarding the phylogeny of the Acacia host plants in each clade, one or more species has apparently shifted to more-divergent Acacia host-plant species, and in each case these shifts have resulted in notable divergence in aspects of the phenotype including morphology, life history and behaviour. Our analyses indicate that gall-thrips on Australian Acacia have undergone parallel diversification as a result of some combination of cospeciation, highly restricted host-plant shifting, or both processes, but that the evolution of novel phenotypic diversity in this group is a function of relatively few shifts to divergent host plants. This combination of ecologically restricted and divergent radiation may represent a microcosm for the macroevolution of host plant relationships and phenotypic diversity among other phytophagous insects.

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Evolution of insect‐plant relationships ‐ a devil's advocate approach*

Cited by 83 publications

References 75 publications

Evolution of plant volatile production in insect-plant relationships

Evolution of plant volatile production in insect-plant relationships

Insect‐plant interactions on a planet of weeds

Parallel diversification of Australian gall-thrips on Acacia

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