Diversity begets diversity: host expansions and the diversification of plant-feeding insects |
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Authors: | Niklas Janz Sören Nylin Niklas Wahlberg |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden |
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Abstract: | Background Plant-feeding insects make up a large part of earth's total biodiversity. While it has been shown that herbivory has repeatedly
led to increased diversification rates in insects, there has been no compelling explanation for how plant-feeding has promoted
speciation rates. There is a growing awareness that ecological factors can lead to rapid diversification and, as one of the
most prominent features of most insect-plant interactions, specialization onto a diverse resource has often been assumed to
be the main process behind this diversification. However, specialization is mainly a pruning process, and is not able to actually
generate diversity by itself. Here we investigate the role of host colonizations in generating insect diversity, by testing
if insect speciation rate is correlated with resource diversity. |
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Keywords: | |
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