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Looking for a similar partner: host plants shape mating preferences of herbivorous insects by altering their contact pheromones
Author(s) -
Geiselhardt Sven,
Otte Tobias,
Hilker Monika
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01816.x
Subject(s) - biology , assortative mating , reproductive isolation , ecological speciation , mating , host (biology) , herbivore , insect , ecology , phenotypic plasticity , sex pheromone , genetic algorithm , gene flow , evolutionary biology , zoology , genetic variation , gene , genetics , population , demography , sociology
The role of phenotypical plasticity in ecological speciation and the evolution of sexual isolation remains largely unknown. We investigated whether or not divergent host plant use in an herbivorous insect causes assortative mating by phenotypically altering traits involved in mate recognition. We found that males of the mustard leaf beetle Phaedon cochleariae preferred to mate with females that were reared on the same plant species to females provided with a different plant species, based on divergent cuticular hydrocarbon profiles that serve as contact pheromones. The cuticular hydrocarbon phenotypes of the beetles were host plant specific and changed within 2 weeks after a shift to a novel host plant species. We suggest that plant‐induced phenotypic divergence in mate recognition cues may act as an early barrier to gene flow between herbivorous insect populations on alternative host species, preceding genetic divergence and thus, promoting ecological speciation.