Diversity of Plant-Insect Interactions

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2014) | Viewed by 20694

Special Issue Editor

Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l’Environnement, CRBE, UMR 5300 (CNRS-UPS-INPT), Université Paul Sabatier, Batiment IVR1-Room 359, 118, Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse CEDEX 9, France
Interests: molecular evolution; dynamic of communities and populations; plant–insect interactions, ecology; tools: mitochondrial DNA; ISSR; cuticular hydrocarbons; field ecology; model organisms: lepidoptera; diptera; spiders
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Insects are from far the most numerous organisms on earth with 1,800,000 described species but surely much more to be discovered. These animals exist all over the earth in all the types of ecosystems. Many species (at least the half, but surely more), are in close interaction with plants. Some species are extremely specialized while some others are generalists. As the “biological” agriculture is now a trend, many insects’ species convert themselves in plagues for man due to an excessive mono-cultivation of crops. Plants are not only food for insects, but often the secondary metabolites are used as defense compounds and even as precursors for insect’ pheromones production. Even if many studies were performed on pests for agriculture, all a hidden world is front of us concerning the great majority of species especially in the tropics. No more than 1000 plant-insects interactions were intensively worked and characterized; still missing at least 899,000 to understand. In this Diversity’s special issue titled “Diversity of Plant-Insect Interactions” we would like to provide an overview of original new types of interactions or some major advances for some interactions already known.

Dr. Luc Legal
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • plant-insect new models
  • co-evolution
  • cross molecular evolution insects/plants
  • chemical evolution of interactions
  • advances in biological agriculture
  • modeling of interaction processes

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Communication
Oviposition Decision of the Weevil Exapion ulicis on Ulex europaeus Depends on External and Internal Pod Cues
by Benjamin Hornoy, Michèle Tarayre, Jean-Sébastien Pierre and Anne Atlan
Diversity 2013, 5(4), 734-749; https://doi.org/10.3390/d5040734 - 30 Sep 2013
Cited by 188 | Viewed by 5851
Abstract
Understanding mechanisms underlying insects’ host choice and plant susceptibility is important to the study of plant-insect interactions in general, and in the context of plant invasions. This study investigates the oviposition and feeding choices of the specialist weevil Exapion ulicis on the invasive [...] Read more.
Understanding mechanisms underlying insects’ host choice and plant susceptibility is important to the study of plant-insect interactions in general, and in the context of plant invasions. This study investigates the oviposition and feeding choices of the specialist weevil Exapion ulicis on the invasive plant species Ulex europaeus, gorse. To do so, we studied the oviposition and feeding preferences of the weevil in choice experiments, using pods and flowers, respectively, from gorses grown in a common garden. The plants used came from regions with different infestation histories: Brittany and Scotland belong to the native range, where the weevil is present, while Reunion and New Zealand belong to the invasive range, where the weevil was not initially introduced with gorse. Results of these experiments suggest that the oviposition choice of E. ulicis females is driven by cues located at the surface of pods and inside them, including pod size and pod seed content. Feeding-choice experiments showed a different pattern of preference compared to oviposition. Taken together with previous studies, our results reveal that E. ulicis uses several traits to choose its host, including whole-plant traits, flower traits and pod traits. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diversity of Plant-Insect Interactions)
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Review
Aspects of Landscape and Pollinators—What is Important to Bee Conservation?
by Gleiciani B. Patrício-Roberto and Maria J. O. Campos
Diversity 2014, 6(1), 158-175; https://doi.org/10.3390/d6010158 - 04 Mar 2014
Cited by 48 | Viewed by 14217
Abstract
Pollinators, especially bees, are essential to terrestrial ecosystems. They ensure the maintenance of certain ecological processes, like superior plants’ reproduction. In the past decades, agricultural intensification has caused extensive environmental changes, with major impacts on biodiversity, especially on the pollinators, which reflects the [...] Read more.
Pollinators, especially bees, are essential to terrestrial ecosystems. They ensure the maintenance of certain ecological processes, like superior plants’ reproduction. In the past decades, agricultural intensification has caused extensive environmental changes, with major impacts on biodiversity, especially on the pollinators, which reflects the loss of fruits and seeds sets. Here, we review studies that elucidate the causes of decline of pollinators, consequences of landscape changes to agriculture and possibilities to bees’ conservation. Many studies have related the loss of pollinators to changes in the landscape, such as the conversion of native forests into cultivated areas, which causes loss of important elements for bees (e.g., sources of pollen, nectar and oil, as well as varied nesting sites). Studies involving landscape ecology allow us to assess the effects of different farming practices over the richness and abundance of pollinators. Among the landscape elements performing positive influence on bees, the presence of remaining forests nearby cultivated areas proved to be a very important factor. Nevertheless, studies that evaluate all ground cover with a more integrated approach are still required to assess the effects of landscape context on the diversity and on the abundance of bees related to productivity of crops. Researches like these could provide specific data that strengthen the need for the conservation of different plants and animals, and could offer subsidies to propose necessary information for the execution of public and private policies, aimed at the conservation of the biodiversity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diversity of Plant-Insect Interactions)
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