Insect populations including butterflies are declining worldwide, and they are becoming an
urgent conservation priority in many regions. Understanding which butterfly species migrate …

Every fall, millions of North American monarch butterflies undergo a stunning long-distance
migration to reach their overwintering grounds in Mexico. Migration allows the butterflies to …

Ecology Letters (2011) 14: 476–483 Abstract Attempts over the past 50 years to explain
variation in the abundance, distribution and diversity of plant secondary compounds gave …

Why do parasites harm their hosts? Conventional wisdom holds that because parasites
depend on their hosts for survival and transmission, they should evolve to become benign …

Parasites can dramatically reduce the fitness of their hosts, and natural selection should
favor defense mechanisms that can protect hosts against disease. Much work has focused …

Tolerance, the ability of a host to limit the negative fitness effects of a given parasite load, is
now recognised as an important host defence strategy in animals. Together with resistance …

Larval lepidopterans (hereafter, caterpillars) protect themselves from natural enemies with a
diverse suite of defenses which are employed before, during, or after encounters with …

Interspecies transmission of viruses is a well-known phenomenon in animals and plants
whether via contacts or vectors. In fungi, interspecies transmission between distantly related …

The dazzling variation in plant chemistry is a primary mediator of trophic interactions,
including herbivory, predation, parasitism, and disease. At the same time, such interactions …

After parasite infection, invertebrates activate immune system-based defenses such as
encapsulation and the signaling pathways of the innate immune system. However, hosts are …