Tradeoffs in performance on different hosts: evidence from within- and between-site variation in the beetle Deloyala guttata.

Models of host race formation and sympatric speciation in phytophagous insects assume that genotypes that have high viability and/or fecundity on one host species have low viability and/or fecundity on others. This report describes experiments designed to determine whether such negative genetic correlations in performance on different hosts exist in the tortoise beetle. No evidence for such negative correlations was found within the populations examined. Between-population variation in fecundity is suggestive of but does not conclusively demonstrate the existence of such trade-offs.-from Author

Duke Scholars

Author Mark D. Rausher Biology