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Questions and Answers
What are the two weeks of lectures focused on?
Fundamentals of insect-plant interactions and various specific topics.
Which of the following is a reason to study plant-insect interactions? (Select all that apply)
Herbivorous insects can only feed on a single plant species.
False
Herbivorous insects are classified based on their feeding methods: chewers, ______, miners, and gallers.
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What is the purpose of the plant defenses against insect feeding?
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Match the type of herbivorous insect to their feeding method:
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What is the significance of insect-plant interactions in ecological studies?
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Study Notes
Course Outline
- The course is split into two weeks of lectures.
- Week one covers:
- Overview of insect-plant interactions
- Types of insect-plant interactions
- Plant defences to insects feeding
- Plant fitness in defences
- Week two covers:
- Insect pre-adaptation or adaptation to plant association
- Pollination
- Insects as weed biocontrol agents
- Host plant resistance
Why Study Plant-Insect Interactions?
- Plants and insects are the most diverse and abundant organisms.
- Plant-insect systems are crucial for maintaining the diversity and abundance of all life.
- Plant-insect systems serve as models for testing ecological and evolutionary theory.
- Humans' greatest competitors are phytophagous/herbivorous insects.
- Herbivorous insects can be used as biological control agents against weeds.
Herbivory
- 300 million years of herbivory.
- Herbivorous insects can be classified by their effect on plants:
- Chewers: tear and bite off plant tissue
- Sap suckers: probe plant tissue using piercing-sucking mouthparts
- Miners: burrow through leaf tissue, creating tunnels of eaten tissue
- Gallers: transform plant tissue into domiciles for feeding and development
- Herbivorous insects can also be classified by where they feed:
- Ectophytic insects feed externally
- Endophytic insects feed within plant tissue
Herbivorous Insects are Classified by Host Taxa
- Monophagous species feed on a single host plant species, genus, or family and are specialists.
- Oligophagous species feed on a limited number of host plant species, genera, or families.
- Polyphagous species feed on a wide range of host plant species, genera, or families.
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