Dissertation Research: Measuring the Fitness Consequences of Host Plant selection: Rothschildia Lebeau (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) in Costa Rican Tropical Dry Forest

论文研究：测量寄主植物选择的适应性后果：哥斯达黎加热带干燥森林的 Rothschildia Lebeau（鳞翅目：土星科）

• 批准号: 0508573
• 负责人: Daniel Janzen
• 金额: $ 1.18万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-06-15 至 2006-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0508573&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Measuring; Fitness; Consequences

Many butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) lay their eggs directly on their caterpillar's food plants and the caterpillars must complete their development there. What effect does the choice of food plant by the adult female have on the growth, development, and survival of her caterpillars and, therefore, on her expected fitness? The investigators' goal is to answer this question for the giant wild silk moth Rothschildia lebeau (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) in the tropical dry forest of the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG), in northwestern Costa Rica. The investigators will follow cohorts of caterpillars from hatching to adulthood. The caterpillars will be placed experimentally on individual food plants in the forest in order to measure caterpillar growth, development, and survival on different species of food plants under natural conditions. These experiments will be repeated in different habitats, seasons, and years. This study will contribute to our basic knowledge about the natural range of variation in food plant "quality" experienced by herbivorous insects in nature and, in turn, it will reveal the consequences to the caterpillar of eating distinct species.Broader Impacts: For nearly 25 years, the ACG has been the site of an intensive biodiversity inventory of adult moths and butterflies and their caterpillars. This inventory has produced a wealth of natural history and taxonomic information, which presents opportunities for countless ecological studies that address core questions in the field of plant-insect research. This is one such study. As the ACG's biodiversity projects increase the value of this and other ecological studies, these same ecological studies reciprocate by increasing the value of the biodiversity projects and the conserved wildland in which they occur.

许多蝴蝶和飞蛾（鳞翅目）直接在毛虫的食物植物上产卵，毛虫必须在那里完成发育。 成年雌虫对食物植物的选择对毛虫的生长、发育和生存有什么影响，因此也就对它的预期健康有什么影响？ 研究人员的目标是为哥斯达黎加西北部瓜纳卡斯特保护区（ACG）热带干燥森林中的巨型野生蚕蛾Rothschildia lebeau（鳞翅目：蚕蛾科）回答这个问题。 研究人员将跟踪毛毛虫从孵化到成年的队列。 这些毛毛虫将被实验性地放置在森林中的个别食用植物上，以测量毛毛虫在自然条件下在不同种类的食用植物上的生长、发育和存活。 这些实验将在不同的栖息地、季节和年份重复进行。 这项研究将有助于我们的基本知识的自然变化范围内的食草性昆虫在自然界中所经历的食物植物的“质量”，反过来，它将揭示后果的毛虫吃不同的species.Broader影响：近25年来，ACG一直是一个密集的生物多样性库存的成年蛾和蝴蝶及其毛虫的网站。 该清单产生了丰富的自然历史和分类信息，为解决植物昆虫研究领域的核心问题的无数生态研究提供了机会。 这是一项这样的研究。 由于ACG的生物多样性项目增加了这一研究和其他生态研究的价值，这些生态研究也通过增加生物多样性项目及其所在的受保护荒地的价值而得到回报。