Most empirical and theoretical studies of resource use and population dynamics treat
conspecific individuals as ecologically equivalent. This simplification is only justified if …

Ecology Letters (2010) 13: 383–393 Abstract The extent to which behavioural choices reflect
fine‐tuned evolutionary adaptation remains an open debate. For herbivorous insects, the …

Ecological theory suggests that complex food webs should not persist because of their
inherent instability.“Real” ecosystems often support a large number of interacting species. A …

▪ Abstract This review points out the problem of processing multiple sensory inputs and
provides evidence that generalists suffer a disadvantage compared with specialists with …

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 …

There is a considerable interest in trying to understand how aphids find their host plants
because they are a major cause of economic losses in agricultural and horticultural …

Ecological research in the past few decades has shown that most animals acquire and
respond adaptively to information that affects survival and reproduction. At the same time …

Half a million species of herbivorous insects have been described. Most of them are diet
specialists, using only a few plant species as hosts. Biologists suspect that their specificity is …

▪ Abstract Food webs are overlaid with infochemical webs that mediate direct and indirect
interactions. The infochemicals may result in shifts in trait values, which affect the strength of …

Two general patterns that have emerged from the intense studies on insect‐host plant
associations are a predominance of specialists over generalists and a taxonomic …