Louisiana State University Louisiana State University
LSU Digital Commons LSU Digital Commons
Faculty Publications Department of Biological Sciences
1-1-2014
Response of native insect communities to invasive plants Response of native insect communities to invasive plants
T. Martijn Bezemer
Netherlands Institute of Ecology
Jeffrey A. Harvey
Netherlands Institute of Ecology
James T. Cronin
Louisiana State University
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/biosci_pubs
Recommended Citation Recommended Citation
Bezemer, T., Harvey, J., & Cronin, J. (2014). Response of native insect communities to invasive plants.
Annual Review of Entomology, 59
, 119-141. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ento-011613-162104
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Biological Sciences at LSU Digital
Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital
Commons. For more information, please contact ir@lsu.edu.
EN59CH07-Bezemer ARI 4 December 2013 15:25
Response of Native Insect
Communities to Invasive Plants
T. Martijn Bezemer,
1, ∗
Jeffrey A. Harvey,
1
and James T. Cronin
2
1
Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), 6708
PB Wageningen, The Netherlands; email: m.bezemer@nioo.knaw.nl, j.harvey@nioo.knaw.nl
2
Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge,
Louisiana 70803; email: j.cronin@lsu.edu
Annu. Rev. Entomol. 2014. 59:119–41
First published online as a Review in Advance on
October 18, 2013
The Annual Review of Entomology is online at
ento.annualreviews.org
This article’s doi:
10.1146/annurev-ento-011613-162104
Copyright
c
2014 by Annual Reviews.
All rights reserved
∗
Corresponding author
Keywords
enemy release, exotic plant, metapopulation, natural enemy, parasitoid,
pollinator, population dynamics
Abstract
Invasive plants can disrupt a range of trophic interactions in native commu-
nities. As a novel resource they can affect the performance of native insect
herbivores and their natural enemies such as parasitoids and predators, and
this can lead to host shifts of these herbivores and natural enemies. Through
the release of volatile compounds, and by changing the chemical complexity
of the habitat, invasive plants can also affect the behavior of native insects
such as herbivores, parasitoids, and pollinators. Studies that compare insects
on related native and invasive plants in invaded habitats show that the abun-
dance of insect herbivores is often lower on invasive plants, but that damage
levels are similar. The impact of invasive plants on the population dynamics
of resident insect species has been rarely examined, but invasive plants can in-
fluence the spatial and temporal dynamics of native insect (meta)populations
and communities, ultimately leading to changes at the landscape level.
119
Annu. Rev. Entomol. 2014.59:119-141. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Access provided by Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge on 09/27/21. For personal use only.
Click here for quick links to
Annual Reviews content online,
including:
• Other articles in this volume
• Top cited articles
• Top downloaded articles
• Our comprehensive search
Fur ther
ANNUAL
REVIEWS
EN59CH07-Bezemer ARI 4 December 2013 15:25
INTRODUCTION
The introduction and establishment of invasive plants into new habitats in which they have not
coevolved with the native biota are identified as a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystem
structure and function (97, 145). Invasive plants can affect native communities by competing
with and excluding other plants, and also by disrupting a wide range of trophic interactions
that are associated with them. The success of invasive plant species in their new range, in turn,
also depends on the interactions with native plants and herbivores (99). Hence, predicting the
interactions between invasive plants and native food webs and communities and their consequences
for ecosystem functioning is one of the greatest contemporary challenges in ecology (15). As
primary producers, plants fuel most terrestrial food webs, and as a new resource, invasive plants
can affect native insect herbivores and their natural enemies directly. However, invasive plants
can also indirectly alter the abundance or performance of native insects on native plants, via their
effects on the quality, abundance, or diversity of native plants or on the structure of their habitat.
Interactions between invasive plants and native insects have long been studied in ecology (41).
However, particularly during the past decade, interest in this topic has risen, in line with the
rapidly increasing number of plants that invade new habitats and concerns about the ecological
and economic costs of invasions worldwide.
In this review we examine the direct and indirect effects of invasive plants on native insect
communities. Although the consequences of these effects to the functioning of invaded ecosystems
represents an exciting and fertile area of research (133), this subject is beyond the scope of our
review. The review is divided into two sections. In the first section, we provide an overview of the
effects of invasive plants on the performance and behavior of insect herbivores and their natural
enemies (predators and parasitoids). Invasive plants may contain novel secondary compounds that
are toxic to native herbivores and their natural enemies, or may produce odors that are attractive
to native insects and consequently interfere with interactions of these native insects with native
plants. These effects can lead to altered performance but also to adaptive responses in native
insects. In the second section, we discuss effects of invasive plants on native insect populations
and communities. We discuss how insect communities in native and invaded plant communities
differ and review the literature to examine whether insect herbivory and herbivore and predator
communities differ on invasive and native congeneric plant species. We also describe how invasive
plants can affect pollinator communities. Subsequently, we describe how invasive plants can affect
insect communities at larger temporal and spatial scales. Finally, we suggest a number of future
directions for research on the impact of invasive plants on native insects.
DEFINING DIFFERENT TYPES OF PLANT INVASIONS
A common interpretation of an invasive plant is a species of intercontinental origin that is in-
troduced into a nonnative habitat. A distinction is often made between plant species that spread
broadly within their newly occupied regions (invasive species) and those that do not (naturalized
species). Many plant species also expand their ranges within continents due to indirect anthro-
pogenic processes such as land use changes and climate warming. In this review we do not distin-
guish between these types of invaders and range expanders but consider all plant species that enter
a new habitat as “invasive” plants. However, we realize that for plant species involved in intra-
continental range expansion, the identity and genetic composition of the insect community (e.g.,
herbivores, predators, pollinators) encountered by the plants in their new habitat are not as differ-
ent as for plant species that have traversed a substantial barrier (e.g., oceans for transcontinental
invaders).
120 Bezemer
·
Harvey
·
Cronin
Annu. Rev. Entomol. 2014.59:119-141. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Access provided by Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge on 09/27/21. For personal use only.
EN59CH07-Bezemer ARI 4 December 2013 15:25
Allelochemical:
a chemical produced
by a living organism
that exerts a negative
physiological effect on
individuals of another
species when released
into the environment
EFFECTS OF INVASIVE PLANTS ON THE PERFORMANCE
AND BEHAVIOR OF NATIVE INSECTS
Performance of Herbivores, Parasitoids, and Predators on Invasive Plants
In nature, insect herbivores must discriminate between suitable and unsuitable plants for their
own nutrition and/or that of their progeny. The recognition of suitable oviposition and feeding
cues in native plant–insect food webs has been studied over many years and a wealth of data has
been generated (4, 19). Moreover, it has long been established that the nutritional quality of plant
tissues, as mediated by concentrations of primary and secondary plant metabolites, as well as by
morphological characteristics, may significantly affect the feeding behavior and development of
native herbivores (4).
Based on a growing number of studies, there is no clear consensus regarding how well native
herbivores perform on invasive plant species. In some studies, invasive plants are highly suitable
as hosts and insects achieve high potential fitness (61, 71), whereas in other studies the invasive
plants are toxic to native herbivores (38, 88, 135). In some instances, survival of insect herbivores
is low on invasive plants (38, 61, 88, 107), whereas in others survival is high but development time
is extended and/or adult body mass is reduced (18, 148).
The ability of native herbivores to exploit invasive plants also often differs between special-
ists and generalists. For example, the generalists Mamestra brassicae and Spodoptera littoralis de-
veloped well on the invasive crucifer Bunias orientalis, whereas several crucifer specialists either
perished or had very low fitness on this plant species (47, 61, 107). In a study in the United
States, several generalist herbivores grew faster and survived better on native black cherry than on
16 invasive tree or forb species (135). In contrast, generalist and specialist chrysomelid beetles
exhibited similar life-history responses when feeding on invasive plants in the order Zingiberales
(50).
Host plants can also affect the development of predators and parasitoids via their impact on
the nutritional quality of their herbivore prey or host (109). In particular, primary and secondary
metabolites—nutrients and allelochemicals, respectively—ingested by the herbivore host can di-
rectly or indirectly affect the feeding or oviposition preference of predators and parasitoids (109).
Moreover, the development of parasitoids, in particular those that develop inside of their hosts
(i.e., endoparasitoids), is often closely associated with host-related attributes such as size, growth
rate, and diet (60). In spite of the fact that parasitoids and predators have long been recognized
as critical to the structure and function of ecological communities (117), little research has been
conducted on the effects of invasive plants on the development of higher trophic levels (62, 63).
The few studies that are available suggest that the effects of invasive plants on parasitoid develop-
ment are highly trait dependent. For instance, the development of the pupal parasitoid Pteromalus
puparum is less affected by plant origin (native Brassica nigra versus invasive Bunias orientalis)than
the development of the larval endoparasitoid Cotesia glomerata on their shared host Pieris brassicae
(47) (Figure 1). This difference could be because the suitability of a host for an endoparasitoid
is determined largely by host growth and survival after parasitism, whereas host suitability for a
pupal parasitoid is determined by a host’s previous nutritional history (60). Although the pupae
of surviving P. brassicae were smaller on the invasive plant than on the native plant, the size of the
pupal parasitoid was unaffected because the female wasps adjusted their clutch size in accordance
with host size, laying fewer eggs on pupae from P. brassicae reared on the invasive host plant (47).
Invasive plants may also differ in nutritional quality in different parts of their invasive ranges.
The development of a generalist herbivore and its specialized endoparasitoid, for example, differs
considerably on two populations of the invasive weed B. orientalis (64).
www.annualreviews.org
•
Native Insects and Invasive Plants 121
Annu. Rev. Entomol. 2014.59:119-141. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Access provided by Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge on 09/27/21. For personal use only.
EN59CH07-Bezemer ARI 4 December 2013 15:25
Host Shifts of Native Insects to Invasive Plants
Invasive plants may possess certain unique chemical or morphological traits that are absent in
native food plants. Consequently, they may not be recognized as suitable oviposition sites by local
populations of herbivore species. However, invasive plants can also be important substitutes as
food plants. Several studies have reported shifts from native host plants to invasive plants by na-
tive generalist and specialist herbivores. For instance, larvae of the southern cabbageworm, Pontia
protodice, which is native to the southeastern United States, feed on a range of well-established
Sinapis arvensis (native) Bunias orientalis (invasive)
SHOOT
HERBIVORES
ROOT
HERBIVORES
High
Plant nutritional suitability
Marginal
Toxic
POLLINATORS
PARASITOIDS
Plutella
xylostella
Athalia
rosae
Generalist
Generalist
Generalist
Pieris
rapae
Cotesia
glomerata
Pieris
brassicae
Plutella
xylostella
Athalia
rosae
Pieris
rapae
Cotesia
glomerata
Microplitis
mediator
Pieris
brassicae
Mamestra
brassicae
Mamestra
brassicae
Byturus ochraceus
Byturus ochraceus
Delia radicum Delia radicum
Specialists GeneralistSpecialists
122 Bezemer
·
Harvey
·
Cronin
Annu. Rev. Entomol. 2014.59:119-141. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Access provided by Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge on 09/27/21. For personal use only.