Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 25 August 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5790, p. 1016
DOI: 10.1126/science.313.5790.1016a
Table of Contents | Next

This Week in Science

Figure 1 Plants and their insect predators form a complex and evolving ecosystem (see the Perspective by Kitching). Wilf et al. (p. 1112) show that the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction complicated plant-insect coevolution for perhaps several million years. In one location after the extinction, a limited species of leaves reveal diverse insect predation. In another, many species of leaves show limited types of predation. Thus, in some locations, plants seemed to have evolved without much insect predation, while in others, insects evolved despite limited plant diversity. In contrast, Novotny et al. (p. 1115) compared present-day insect host specificity and diversity on phylogenetically comparable sets of plants in tropical and temperate forests. Coexistence of numerous herbivore species in tropical forests did not seem to reflect narrower niches; instead, herbivore species richness appeared to be driven by plant diversity.

CREDIT: M. JANDA (2005)




To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)