Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology

What are the patterns of specialization in insect herbivores associated with diverse tree genera?

2/9/2024

The majority of multi-cellular terrestrial life is found in tropical forests, and is either invertebrate or a plant: for decades ecologists have sought to understand why. In an age of biodiversity loss this endeavour has become critical to understanding ecosystem functioning and resilience. As a part of a team including Simon Segar and our colleagues working in Papua New Guinea, we studied three feeding guilds of caterpillars to understand the drivers of their diet breadth across four diverse tropical plant genera.

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