“…In effect, Opuntia species contain nutritional components, such as lipids, terpenes, free sugars, acids that are usually found in succulents (eucomic, phorbic, and piscidic), and phenolics (Stintzing & Carle, 2005; Carreira et al, 2014), whereas Trichocereus cacti contain alkaloids (such as mescaline, candicine, and trichocereine; Reti & Castrillón, 1951; Corio et al, 2013; Padró & Soto, 2013). In fact, the greater tolerance to alkaloids exhibited by D. koepferae , as compared to D. buzzatii , has probably evolved as an adaptation to the host shift from prickly pears of Opuntia species to columnar cacti (Soto et al, 2014; Padró et al, 2018; Bouzas et al, 2021). Moreover, natural selection should favour individuals that better exploit resources, particularly when host plants differ in their suitability and immature stages are confined to the host selected by their mother (Markow, 2019).…”