Open AccessCaterpillars on a phytochemical landscape: The case of alfalfa and the Melissa blue butterfly
Author(s) -
Forister Matthew L.,
Yoon Su'ad A.,
Philbin Casey S.,
Dodson Craig D.,
Hart Bret,
Harrison Joshua G.,
Shelef Oren,
Fordyce James A.,
Marion Zachary H.,
Nice Chris C.,
Richards Lora A.,
Buerkle C. Alex,
Gompert Zach
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
ecology and evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.17
H-Index - 63
ISSN - 2045-7758
DOI - 10.1002/ece3.6203
Subject(s) - phytochemical , herbivore , biology , medicago sativa , butterfly , caterpillar , melissa officinalis , botany , ecology , larva
Abstract Modern metabolomic approaches that generate more comprehensive phytochemical profiles than were previously available are providing new opportunities for understanding plant‐animal interactions. Specifically, we can characterize the phytochemical landscape by asking how a larger number of individual compounds affect herbivores and how compounds covary among plants. Here we use the recent colonization of alfalfa ( Medicago sativa ) by the Melissa blue butterfly ( Lycaeides melissa ) to investigate the effects of indivdiual compounds and suites of covarying phytochemicals on caterpillar performance. We find that survival, development time, and adult weight are all associated with variation in nutrition and toxicity, including biomolecules associated with plant cell function as well as putative anti‐herbivore action. The plant‐insect interface is complex, with clusters of covarying compounds in many cases encompassing divergent effects on different aspects of caterpillar performance. Individual compounds with the strongest associations are largely specialized metabolites, including alkaloids, phenolic glycosides, and saponins. The saponins are represented in our data by more than 25 individual compounds with beneficial and detrimental effects on L. melissa caterpillars, which highlights the value of metabolomic data as opposed to approaches that rely on total concentrations within broad defensive classes.