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Geographic biotype and host-associated local adaptation in a polyphagous species, Lambdina fiscellaria (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) feeding on balsam fir on Anticosti Island, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2007

C. Hébert ,
R. Berthiaume ,
É. Bauce  and
J. Brodeur
C. Hébert*
Affiliation:
Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Laurentian Forestry Centre, 1055 du PEPS, PO Box 10380, Stn. Sainte-Foy, Quebec, Quebec G1V 4C7, Canada
R. Berthiaume
Affiliation:
Université Laval, Faculté de Foresterie, Cité Universitaire, Pavillon Abitibi-Price, Sainte-Foy, Québec G1K 7P4, Canada
É. Bauce
Affiliation:
Université Laval, Faculté de Foresterie, Cité Universitaire, Pavillon Abitibi-Price, Sainte-Foy, Québec G1K 7P4, Canada
J. Brodeur
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche en Biologie Végétale, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec H1X 2B2, Canada
*
*Fax: (418) 648 5849 E-mail: chebert@nrcan.gc.ca
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Abstract

The debate about mechanisms underlying the evolution of host specialization by herbivorous insects remains open. Natural selection may act locally and lead to different patterns of geographic variation in life history traits of polyphagous herbivores. The hypothesis of genetically-based trade-offs in offspring performance on different hosts has been proposed but this has rarely been demonstrated. Under laboratory conditions, the biological performance of two populations of the hemlock looper Lambdina fiscellaria (Guenée), a highly polyphagous lepidopteran, was compared when reared on three different tree host species: balsam fir, eastern hemlock and sugar maple. One population originated from Anticosti Island, Québec, Canada, where the insect has evolved without having access to two of the three tree species tested, the other being from the mainland where all tree species are present. When reared on balsam fir foliage, which was naturally available to each population, larvae from Anticosti Island underwent four instars compared with five for the mainland population, indicating the existence of geographic biotypes in L. fiscellaria. When reared on the foliage of non-naturally available host trees, larvae from Anticosti Island had a higher incidence of supernumerary instars. This is a unique example where local adaptation to environmental conditions of an insect herbivore is expressed through a differential number of larval instars. Moreover, the Anticosti Island population showed a higher growth related index on the host available to both populations indicating that a fitness trade-off was the evolutionary process underlying the local adaptation of this population on balsam fir.

Keywords

local adaptationspecializationfitness trade-offgrowth related indexgeographic biotypeisland ecologygeographic isolationpolyphagous LepidopteraLambdina fiscellariaGeometridae
Type
Research Article
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 96 , Issue 6 , December 2006 , pp. 619 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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