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Science 27 February 1981:
Vol. 211. no. 4485, pp. 887 - 893
DOI: 10.1126/science.211.4485.887
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Articles

Specialization: Species Property or Local Phenomenon?

L. R. Fox 1 and P. A. Morrow 2

1 Assistant professor of biology in the Biology Board of Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz 95064
2 Associate professor of biology in the Department of Ecology and Behavorial Biology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455

Many herbivorous insects have generalized diets over the species' entire geographical ranges but they function as specialists with restricted diets in local communities. Local feeding specialization can be produced by biochemical, behavioral, ecological, and evolutionary processes. Much evidence is incompatible with the widely held assumptions that diet breadth is a species characteristic and that specialization among herbivorous insects implies greater efficiency and less niche overlap.


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