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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Ecol. Evol.

Sec. Behavioral and Evolutionary Ecology

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fevo.2025.1647436

This article is part of the Research TopicThe Paradox of GeneralismView all 4 articles

Caterpillar diet breadth in Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG), a large and diverse Neotropical wildland in northwestern Costa Rica: toxins, silica, aluminium and sclerophylly

Provisionally accepted
Donald  L J QuickeDonald L J Quicke1Allison  BrownAllison Brown2Mehrdad  HajibabaeiMehrdad Hajibabaei2Ramya  ManjunathRamya Manjunath2Suresh  NaikSuresh Naik2Sujeevan  RatnasinghamSujeevan Ratnasingham2Jayme  SonesJayme Sones2Brianne  St JacquesBrianne St Jacques2M  Alex SmithM Alex Smith2Nelson  ZamoraNelson Zamora3John  W BrownJohn W Brown4Tanner  A MatsonTanner A Matson4Scott  E MillerScott E Miller4John  M BurnsJohn M Burns4Paul  GoldsteinPaul Goldstein4Mark  A MetzMark A Metz4Robert  RobbinsRobert Robbins4M  Alma SolisM Alma Solis4Isidro  ChaconIsidro Chacon5Bernardo  EspinozaBernardo Espinoza5Annia  PicadoAnnia Picado6Eugenie  Phillips- RodriguezEugenie Phillips- Rodriguez6Paul  D N HebertPaul D N Hebert2Daniel  JanzenDaniel Janzen7Winnie  HallwachsWinnie Hallwachs7Buntika  Areekul ButcherBuntika Areekul Butcher1*
  • 1Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 2University of Guelph Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, Guelph, Canada
  • 3Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
  • 4Smithsonian Institution, Washington, United States
  • 5BioAlfa, Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica
  • 6Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund, Huntington, United States
  • 7University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Caterpillar-food plant records collected over approximately 38 years in the Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica are described and summarised. The data comprise 431,212 individual rearing records, 197,366 of which represent unique plant-herbivore associations, i.e., same species pair found on separate dates and at different plants of the same species. These represent 29,187 different caterpillar-food plant associations between 2,489 plant and 7,160 Lepidoptera species. We evaluate changes in the taxonomic composition of the foodplant flora and Lepidoptera fauna between 1990 and 2020, and across habitat/community types. Food plant and caterpillar community species richness in the rain forest changed considerably over the first 10 years but remained more stable since. Dry forest communities were more consistent than in rain forest. The cloud forest biota was the most consistent between 1995 and 2010 but, as in dry forest, the caterpillar fauna changed considerably during 2015-2020. Plant species composition was more constant than caterpillar composition. The taxonomic distribution of diet specialists and generalists are explored. Most of the species-rich Lepidoptera families contain many specialists, variously concentrated throughout each family, though highly polyphagous collectively. Exceptions include Sphingidae, which show preference for Rubiaceae; Hesperiinae for monocotyledons; and non-Hesperiinae for Fabaceae. Among plant families for which there are over 1,000 independent rearings, Acanthaceae, Apocynaceae, Arecaceae, Costaceae, Melastomataceae, Moraceae, Piperaceae, Poaceae, Rubiaceae, Rutaceae and Solanaceae hosted the greatest proportion of specialists. However, the level at which dietary specialisation corresponds to taxonomic rank varies with both caterpillar and plant taxon. Most fern-feeders are polyphagous with respect to fern families, but still specialists on Polypodiopsida. A selection of plant families with conspicuous allelochemical and/or structural defenses and a selection of caterpillars and caterpillar families with equally conspicuous counter-defenses were examined. We determined that (1) unpalatable, aposematic herbivores tend to be specialists and, (2) families of plants predominantly consumed by highly defended caterpillars host fewer polyphagous herbivores than families with less conspicuously defended plants. Highly toxic plant families with the fewest rearings, such as Aristolochiaceae and Zamiaceae, hosted many monophagous caterpillars. Biochemical and structural plant defences appear to mediate herbivore diet breadth for many plant families.

Keywords: trophic interactions, Latex, toxins, diet breadth, Lepidoptera, Food plants, specialism

Received: 15 Jun 2025; Accepted: 05 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Quicke, Brown, Hajibabaei, Manjunath, Naik, Ratnasingham, Sones, Jacques, Smith, Zamora, Brown, Matson, Miller, Burns, Goldstein, Metz, Robbins, Solis, Chacon, Espinoza, Picado, Phillips- Rodriguez, Hebert, Janzen, Hallwachs and Butcher. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Buntika Areekul Butcher, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

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