Plant compounds affect insects in many different ways. In addition to being a food source,
plants also contain secondary metabolites that may have positive and negative impacts on …

The evolution of cactophily in the genus Drosophila was a major ecological transition
involving over a hundred species in the Americas that acquired the capacity to cope with a …

Host plant shifts in herbivorous insects often involve facing new environments that may
speed up the evolution of oviposition behavior, performance-related traits, morphology, and …

In phytophagous insects, the larval host plant may have a profound effect on the biology of
the adult stage. This influence has been most widely studied in females, where larval diet …

Drosophila buzzatii and D. koepferae are sibling cactophilic species. The former breeds
primarily on prickly pears (genus Opuntia) whereas the latter breeds on columnar cacti of the …

The host-plant environment of phytophagous insects directly affects various aspects of an
insect's life cycle. Interestingly, relatively few insect groups have specialized in the …

Divergent selection between environments can result in changes to the behavior of an
organism. In many insects, volatile compounds are a primary means by which host plants …

In the cactus-yeast-Drosophila model system, the necrotic cladode is used as substrate by a
diverse and specific microbiota, which is utilized as food source by Drosophila. Although this …

Anthropogenic pollutants have the potential to disrupt reproductive strategies. Little is known
about how lead (Pb 2+) exposure disrupts individual-level responses in reproductive …

Closely related species often differ in the signals involved in sexual communication and
mate recognition. Determining the factors influencing signal quality (ie signal's content and …