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Link to original content: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26399434/
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. 2015 Sep 24:6:8370.
doi: 10.1038/ncomms9370.

Herbivory increases diversification across insect clades

John J Wiens  1 , Richard T Lapoint  1 , Noah K Whiteman  1
Affiliations

Herbivory increases diversification across insect clades

John J Wiens et al. Nat Commun. .

Abstract

Insects contain more than half of all living species, but the causes of their remarkable diversity remain poorly understood. Many authors have suggested that herbivory has accelerated diversification in many insect clades. However, others have questioned the role of herbivory in insect diversification. Here, we test the relationships between herbivory and insect diversification across multiple scales. We find a strong, positive relationship between herbivory and diversification among insect orders. However, herbivory explains less variation in diversification within some orders (Diptera, Hemiptera) or shows no significant relationship with diversification in others (Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera). Thus, we support the overall importance of herbivory for insect diversification, but also show that its impacts can vary across scales and clades. In summary, our results illuminate the causes of species richness patterns in a group containing most living species, and show the importance of ecological impacts on diversification in explaining the diversity of life.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Phylogenies of insect orders and distributions of species richness and herbivory and other traits among clades.
(a) Phylogeny from Misof et al., showing distribution of wings and holometaboly among clades, (b) species richness of hexapod clades, including the number of herbivorous and non-herbivorous species, (c) phylogeny from Rainford et al., (d) phylogeny from this study.
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