Coevolution of Plants and Herbivores: Passion Flower Butterflies

• DOI: 10.2307/2407076
• Publication Date: 2006-05-05T12:27:36Z
• Authors: Woodruff W. Benson; Keith S. Brown; Lawrence E. Gilbert
• Keywords: 0106 biological sciences; 01 natural sciences

Plant specific insect herbivores are remarkable not only in their ability to locate and identify the appropriate host, but also in that they very often show a "botanical instinct" (Brues, 1920, 1924): closely related insects choose closely related plants. For both insects and plants this statement holds true primarily at the level of higher taxa, and is an outcome of chemical similarities among related botanical groups (Kusnezov, 1929). The generation of higher level taxonomic correlations between insects and their host plants is thought to be due to concurrent evolution. A hypothesis as to just how coevolution between insects and plants in the past resulted in these present day patterns was suggested by Brues (1920) and developed fully by Ehrlich and Raven (1965) on the basis of butterfly host plant data. The model involves adaptive radiation by plant lines which evolve effective herbivore deterrents, followed by adaptive