Terrestrial biodiversity is dominated by plants and the herbivores that consume them, and
they are one of the major conduits of energy flow up to higher trophic levels. Here, we …

Divergent natural selection has been shown to promote speciation in a wide range of taxa.
For example, adaptation to different ecological environments, via divergent selection, can …

Ecological specialization is a fundamental and well‐studied concept, yet its great reach and
complexity limit current understanding in important ways. More than 20 years after the …

“Pests soon colonize plants that are cultivated extensively, plant species recruit different pest
species in different regions, and associations of insects with plants are often more casual …

Many plant‐feeding insect species considered to be polyphagous are in fact composed of
genetically differentiated sympatric populations that use different hosts and between which …

Phytophagous insects frequently use multiple host-plant species leading to the evolution of
specialized host-adapted populations and sometimes eventually to speciation. Some insects …

The genetic and ecological factors that shape the evolution of animal diets remain poorly
understood. For herbivorous insects, the expectation has been that trade‐offs exist, such that …

Background Ecological specialization is pervasive in phytophagous arthropods. In such
specialization mode, limits to host range are imposed by trade-offs preventing adaptation to …

The diversity of parasitic insects remains one of the most conspicuous patterns on the
planet. The principal factor thought to contribute to differentiation of populations and …

Trade-offs have often been invoked to explain the evolution of ecological specialization.
Phytophagous insects have been especially well studied, but there has been little evidence …