Abstract
BackgroundHerbivorous insects represent a major fraction of global biodiversity and the relationships they have established with their food plants range from strict specialists to broad generalists. Our knowledge of these relationships is of primary importance to basic (e.g. the study of insect ecology and evolution) and applied biology (e.g. monitoring of pest or invasive species) and yet remains very fragmentary and understudied. In Lepidoptera, caterpillars of families Saturniidae and Sphingidae are rather well known and considered to have adopted contrasting preferences in their use of food plants. The former are regarded as being rather generalist feeders, whereas the latter are more specialist.New informationTo assemble and synthesise the vast amount of existing data on food plants of Lepidoptera families Saturniidae and Sphingidae, we combined three major existing databases to produce a dataset collating more than 26,000 records for 1256 species (25% of all species) in 121 (67%) and 167 (81%) genera of Saturniidae and Sphingidae, respectively. This dataset is used here to document the level of polyphagy of each of these genera using summary statistics, as well as the calculation of a polyphagy score derived from the analysis of Phylogenetic Diversity of the food plants used by the species in each genus.
Highlights
Herbivorous insects represent a major fraction of global biodiversity (Fiedler 1998) and are central to studies of numerous and diverse ecological and evolutionary processes, such as resource specialisation (Devictor et al 2008), co-evolution (Thompson 1988) and food web dynamics (Vidal and Murphy 2017)
To assemble and synthesise the vast amount of existing data on food plants of Lepidoptera families Saturniidae and Sphingidae, we combined three major existing databases to produce a dataset collating more than 26,000 records for 1256 species (25% of all species) in 121 (67%) and 167 (81%) genera of Saturniidae and Sphingidae, respectively. This dataset is used here to document the level of polyphagy of each of these genera using summary statistics, as well as the calculation of a polyphagy score derived from the analysis of Phylogenetic Diversity of the food plants used by the species in each genus
Herbivorous insects represent a major fraction of global biodiversity (Fiedler 1998) and are central to studies of numerous and diverse ecological and evolutionary processes, such as resource specialisation (Devictor et al 2008), co-evolution (Thompson 1988) and food web dynamics (Vidal and Murphy 2017)
Summary
Herbivorous insects represent a major fraction of global biodiversity (Fiedler 1998) and are central to studies of numerous and diverse ecological and evolutionary processes, such as resource specialisation (Devictor et al 2008), co-evolution (Thompson 1988) and food web dynamics (Vidal and Murphy 2017). In addition to variables summarising the level of polyphagy of the caterpillars of sphingid and saturniid moths, we provide a polyphagy score, based on a calculation of Phylogenetic Diversity (Faith 1992) of the food plant families used by the species included in the database. The DHJ database, because it is based on individual specimen records, does include quantitative data; this information is not incorporated into the combined dataset, it could bring additional information on local food plant preferences of species and populations.
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