Summary
Seasonal patterns of insect damage to reproductive tissue of the legume Baptisia australis were studied for three years in native tallgrass priairie. Contrasting seasonal patterns of damage were associated with the major species of insect consumers. The moth Grapholitha tristegana (Olethreutidae) and the weevil Tychius sordidus (Curculionidae), which together infested 80–100% of developing fruits (pods), consistently damaged more seeds on average in early than in late maturing pods. But while late opening flowers were less subject to attack from moths and weevils, they were more subject to attack from chewing insects, particularly blister beetles (Epicauta fabricii, Meloidae), which destroyed >80% of all flowers and developing young pods (including moth and weevil larval inhabitants). The blister beetles arrived late in the flowering season and fed particularly on young reproductive tissue, allowing larger, older pods that had developed from early opening flowers to escape destruction. The relative abundances and impacts of blister beetles, moths, and weevils varied from year to year. Adding to the uncertainty of reproductive success of the host plant were the large and variable amounts of damage to immature buds inflicted by insects (including the blister beetles and weevil adults) and late killing frosts. Thus, timing of flowering is critical to success in seed production for B. australis. The heavy impacts of insects and weather can result in a very narrow window in time (which shifts from year to year) during which B. australis can flower with any success. The opposing pressures exerted by insects and weather on floral reproductive success may act in concert with other features of the plant's biology to foster the maintenance of considerable diversity in flowering times among individuals in local populations of B. australis.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Alcock J, Hadley NF (1987) Tests of alternative hypotheses for assortative mating by size: a comparison of two meloid beetles (Coleoptera: Meloidae). J Kans Entomol Soc 60:41–50
Augspurger CK (1981) Reproductive synchrony of a tropical shrub: experimental studies on effects of pollinators and seed predators on Hybanthus prunifolius (Violaceae). Ecology 62:775–788
Beattie AJ, Breedlove DE, Ehrlich PR (1973) The ecology of the pollinators and predators of Frasera speciosa. Ecology 54:81–91
Benkman CW, Balda RP, Smith CC (1984) Adaptations for seed dispersal and the compromise due to seed predation in limber pine. Ecology 65:632–642
Bertness MD, Wise C, Ellison AM (1987) Consumer pressure and seed set in a salt marsh perennial plant community. Oecologia 71:190–200
Bertwell RL (1972) Coleoptera, especially Curculionidae, of tallgrass prairie. MS thesis, Kansas State Univ, USA
Boyce MS, Perrins CM (1987) Optimizing Great Tit clutch size in a fluctuating environment. Ecology 68:142–153
Breedlove DE, Ehrlich PR (1968) Plant-herbivore coevolution: lupines and lycaenids. Science 162:671–672
Breedlove DE, Ehrlich PR (1972) Coevolution: patterns of legume predation by a lycaenid butterfly. Oecologia 10:99–104
Carey K (1983) Breeding system, genetic variability, and response to selection in Plestrites (Valerianaceae). Evolution 37:947–956
Clark WE (1971) A taxonomic revision of the weevil genus Tychius Germar in America north of Mexico (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Brigham Young Univ Sci Bull, Biol Series 13(3):1–39
Connell JH (1975) Some mechanisms producing structure in natural communities: a model and evidence from field experiments. In: Cody ML, Diamond JM (eds) Ecology and evolution of communities. Belknap Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp 460–490
DeSteven D (1981) Predispersal seed predation in a tropical shrub (Mabea occidentalis Euphorbiaceae). Biotropica 13:146–150
DeSteven D (1983) Reproductive consequences of insect seed predation in Hamamelis virginiana. Evology 64:89–98
Dolinger PM, Ehrlich PR, Fitch WL, Breedlove DE (1973) Alkaloid and predation patterns in Colorado lupine populations. Oecologia 13:191–204
Evans EW (1982) Influence of weather on predator/prey relations: stinkbugs and tent caterpillars. J New York Entomol Soc 90:241–246
Evans EW (1983) The influence of neighboring hosts on colonization of prairie milkweeds by a seed-feeding bug. Ecology 64:648–653
Evans EW (1984) Fire as a natural disturbance to grasshopper assemblages of tallgrass prairie. Oikos 43:9–16
Freeman CC, Hulbert LC (1985) An annotated list of the vascular flora of Konza Prairie Research Natural Area, Kansas. Trans Kans Acad Sciences 88:84–115
Frost SW (1945) Insects feeding or breeding on indigo, Baptisia. J New York Entomol Soc 53:219–225
Gillespie JH (1977) Natural selection for variances in offspring numbers: a new evolutionary principle. Am Nat 111:1010–1014
Haddock RC, Chaplin SJ (1982) Pollination and seed production in two phenologically divergent prairie legumes (Baptisia leucophaea and B. leucantha). Am Midl Nat 108:175–186
Heinrich C (1926) Revision of the North American moths of the subfamilies Laspeyresiinae and Olethreutinae. US Natl Mus Bull 132:1–216
Hulbert LC (1963) Gates' phenological records of 132 plants at Manhattan, Kansas, 1926–1955. Trans Kans Acad Sci 66:82–106
Hulbert LC (1973) Management of Konza Prairie to approximate pre-white-man influences. Third Midwest Prairie Conference Proceedings, Manhattan, Kansas, USA, pp 14–17
Jackson MT (1966) Effects of microclimate on spring flowering phenology. Ecology 47:407–415
Janzen DH (1969) Seed-eaters versus seed size, number, toxicity, and dispersal. Evolution 23:1–27
Janzen DH (1971) Seed predation by animals. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 2:465–492
Johnson KJR (1977) Plant dispersion, seed predation, pollination, and their effect on the fecundity of Baptisia spp. (Leguminosae). MS Thesis. Kansas State Univ, USA
Kinsman S, Platt WJ (1984) The impact of a herbivore upon Mirabilis hirsuta, a fugitive prairie plant. Oecologia 65:2–6
Louda SM (1982a) Distribution ecology: variation in plant recruitment over a gradient in relation to insect seed predation. Ecol Monogr 52:25–41
Louda SM (1982b) Limitation of the recruitment of the shrub Haplopappus squarrosus (Asteraceae) by flower- and seed-feeding insects. J Ecol 70:43–53
Manasse RS, Howe HF (1983) Competition for dispersal among tropical trees: influence of neighbors. Oecologia 59:185–190
Mattson WJ (1971) Relationship between cone crop size and cone damage by insects in red pine seed-production areas. Can Entomol 103:617–621
Meierhoff DW (1984) The effect of insects on the production of seeds of Baptisia spp. and Astragalus crassicarpus. MS Thesis. Emporia State Univ, Kansas, USA
Murfet IC (1977) Environmental interaction and the genetics of flowering. Annu Rev Plant Physiol 28:253–278
Platt WJ, Hill GR, Clark S (1974) Seed production in a prairie legume (Astragalus canadensis L.). Oecologia 17:55–63
Primack RB (1980) Variation in the phenology of natural populations of montane shrubs in New Zealand. J Ecol 68:849–862
Rathcke B (1983) Competition and facilitation among plants for pollination In: Real L (ed) Pollination biology. Academic Press, New York, USA, pp 305–329
Rathcke B, Lacey EP (1985) Phenological patterns of terrestrial plants. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 16:179–214
Schemske DW (1977) Flowering phenology and seed set in Claytonia virginica (Portulaceae). Bull Torrey Bot Club 104:254–263
Selander RB, Mathieu JM (1969) Ecology, behavior, and adult anatomy of the albida group of the genus Epicauta (Coleoptera, Meloidae). Hl Biol Monogr (Univ Ill) 41:1–168
Smith CC (1970) The coevolution of pine squirrels (Tamius sciurus) and conifers. Ecol Monogr 40:349–371
Smith RC (1954) An analysis of 100 years of grasshopper populations in Kansas (1854 to 1954). Trans Kans Acad Sci 57:397–433
Solbreck C, Sillen-Tullberg B (1986a) Seed production and seed predation in a patchy and time-varying environment. Dynamics of a milkweed-tephritid fly system. Oecologia 71:51–58
Solbreck C, Sillen-Tullberg B (1986b) The role of variable weather for the dynamics of a seed-seed predator system. Oecologia 71:59–62
Thompson JN, Willson MF (1979) Evolution of temperate fruit/bird interactions: phenological strategies. Evolution 33:973–982
Zar JH (1974) Biostatistical analysis. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA
Zimmerman M (1980a) Reproduction in Polemonium: competition for pollinators. Ecology 61:497–501
Zimmerman M (1980b) Reproduction in Polemonium: pre-dispersal seed predation. Ecology 61:502–506
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Evans, E.W., Smith, C.C. & Gendron, R.P. Timing of reproduction in a prairie legume: seasonal impacts of insects consuming flowers and seeds. Oecologia 78, 220–230 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00377159
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00377159