Arms Race Between Leaf Rollers and Parasitoids

Abstract

The family Attelabidae show diverse feeding niches of immatures, e.g., there are shoot/petiole/seed borers, leaf miners, and leaf roll feeders to be found, even in closely related species. We evaluated the relative importance of ecological and phylogenetic factors in deciding the community structure using Attelabidae–parasitoid relationships. The studies revealed that parasitoid community is more influenced by feeding niche reflecting maternal plant-manipulation behavior, than it is by the phylogeny of hosts, parasitoids, and host plants. Our results support the idea that niche diversification in herbivorous insects, including leaf roll construction of Attelabidae, might have evolved as a result of the avoidance of parasitoids. A leaf roll constructed and cut off by a female Henicolabus lewisii (Coleoptera; Attelabidae). Photo by Chisato Kobayashi. A female Paratracelophorus longicornis constructing a leaf roll using a leaf of Clethra barbinervis and its specific parasitoid, Poropoea sp., trying to oviposit into an egg in the leaf roll. Photo by Chisato Kobayashi. A female Paropolapoderus pardalis constructing a leaf roll. Photo by Takuo Sawahata. These photographs illustrate the article "Arms race between leaf rollers and parasitoids: diversification of plant-manipulation behavior and its consequences" by Chisato Kobayashi, Kazunori Matsuo, Kyohei Watanabe, Nobuaki Nagata, Yukari Suzuki-Ohno, Masakado Kasata, and Makoto Kato, published in Ecological Monographs 85(2):253–268. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/14-0280.1