Skip to Main Content
U.S. Forest Service
Caring for the land and serving people

United States Department of Agriculture

Home > Search > Publication Information

  1. Host-plant specialization in needle-eating insects of Sweden

    Share via EmailShare on FacebookShare on LinkedInShare on Twitter
    Dislike this pubLike this pub
    Author(s): Christer Björkman; Stig Larsson
    Date: 1991
    Source: In: Baranchikov, Yuri N.; Mattson, William J.; Hain, Fred P.; Payne, Thomas L., eds. Forest Insect Guilds: Patterns of Interaction with Host Trees; 1989 August 13-17; Abakan, Siberia, U.S.S.R. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-153. Radnor, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. 1-20
    Publication Series: Paper (invited, offered, keynote)
    Station: Northeastern Research Station
    PDF: Download Publication  (1.0 MB)
    Note: This article is part of a larger document. View the larger document

    Description

    It has been suggested that the enormous diversity of phytochemicals within the plant kingdom makes it impossible for one and the same insect species to exploit all plant species (Dethier 1954, Fraenkel 1959). Not surprisingly, the number and diversity of host plants utilized by different phytophagous insects are highly variable, and the specific selective pressures acting on them are still poorly understood (Bemays and Graham 1988, Strong 1988). Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain variations in host specificity among phytophagous insects. For example, there are those based on plant traits: plant defenses (Ehrlich and Raven 1964), plant apparency (Feeny 1976, Rhoades and Cates 1976), plant abundance (Root 1973), plant nutritional value (Mattson and Scriber 1987); those based on insect traits: degree of intimacy with the host plant (Mattson et al. 1988), neuronal capacity of the insect (Lains and MacArthur 1969) and finally those based on natural enemies' traits, e.g. the impact of generalist predators (Bernays and Graham 1988). In this paper we examine the predictions resulting from hypotheses based on plant characteristics and insect intimacy. We have used the data available in the literature on host ranges of Swedish needle-eating insects reported to feed on the three major conifer species native to Sweden: Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), Norway spruce (Picea abies), and juniper (Juniperus communis). These species account for almost all of Sweden's coniferous flora.

    Publication Notes

    • Check the Northern Research Station web site to request a printed copy of this publication.
    • Our on-line publications are scanned and captured using Adobe Acrobat.
    • During the capture process some typographical errors may occur.
    • Please contact Sharon Hobrla, shobrla@fs.fed.us if you notice any errors which make this publication unusable.
    • We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
    • This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.

    Citation

    Björkman, Christer; Larsson, Stig. 1991. Host-plant specialization in needle-eating insects of Sweden. In: Baranchikov, Yuri N.; Mattson, William J.; Hain, Fred P.; Payne, Thomas L., eds. Forest Insect Guilds: Patterns of Interaction with Host Trees; 1989 August 13-17; Abakan, Siberia, U.S.S.R. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-153. Radnor, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station: 1-20.

    Related Search

    XML: View XML
Show More
Show Fewer
Jump to Top of Page
https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/19517