herbivore

Invasive exotic plants helped by natural enemies

... Parker. He also noted that this radical shift in herbivore composition may favor exotic plants over natives. Recent research, including a paper authored by Parker in Ecology Letters last year, suggests that native herbivores actually prefer to eat exotic plants over native plants. This research proposes tha...

Tyrannosaur survivorship -- tough times for teens

...ous, or pack, animals. The almost complete lack of herbivore bones from the excavation suggests that this was probably not a predator trap. Recognizing the importance of the site, Currie led an expedition in 1997 to try to find Brown's original quarry and returned annually with a group from the Royal Tyrrell M...

Plants tell caterpillars when it's safe to forage

...ayashi show that plant signals can indeed regulate herbivore behavior. When the larvae of beet armyworms ( Spodoptera exigua ) feed on corn, the plant releases volatile compounds that act as a magnet for parasitic wasps ( Cotesia marginiventris ), which deposit their eggs in the larvae. Production of volatile...

Batfish to the rescue!

...tment." Batfishes may be one of the last intact herbivore populations capable of reversing serious weed overgrowth of inshore coral reefs, he adds. The reef has already all-but lost one major group of weed-mowers, the dugongs, while another ?green turtles ?is seriously endangered. "If Platax is the last ...

Why do insects like to eat some plants more than others?

...l of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln) examined herbivore dynamics, specifically why plants aren't all eaten at the same rate. Plant-insect ecologists typically attribute the differences to variation in the nutritional quality or defective chemistry of plant tissues. However, the researchers found that ca...

Parasites' impact goes beyond host to affect ecosystem

...il known as the common periwinkle and the dominant herbivore in the intertidal zone. "We wanted to find out what was this parasite’s impact on the community," says Byers, who advised Wood during the research, which she conducted in summer 2005 as part of the highly competitive Research Experience for Undergrad...