Seasonally dependent relationship between insect herbivores and host plant density in Jatropha nana, a tropical perennial herb

The fact that plant spatial aggregation patterns shape insect-herbivore communities in a variety of ways has resulted in a large body of literature on the subject. The landmark resource concentration hypothesis predicts that density of insect herbivores per plant will increase as host plant density increases. I examined this prediction across temporal samplings using Jatropha nana and the associated specialist insect herbivores as a system. Through 12 field samplings, I modelled the effect of host plant density on insect-herbivore loads. The initial samplings (2–3) provided evidence for the resource concentration hypothesis, with insect loads increasing with increasing host plant density, whereas the later samplings (4–5, 7–11) showed the opposite; a resource dilution pattern with a decline of insect loads with increasing host plant density. These patterns also depend on the biology of the herbivores and have important implications on J. nana population dynamics. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.