Priming by Insects: Differential Effects of Sympatric and Allopatric Priming upon Plant Performance and Tolerance to Herbivory

Plants have evolved multiple mechanisms to defend themselves from their multiple herbivores. Thus, being able to recognise among them and respond accordingly is fundamental for plant survival and reproduction. Defence priming prepares the plant to better or more rapidly respond to future damage; however, while it is considered an adaptive trait, to date, no studies have evaluated the extent and specificity of the priming recognition. To estimate the costs, benefits and specificity of priming, we used a highly specialist plant–insect system (Datura stramonium–Lema daturaphila) and performed a reciprocal transplant experiment with two populations where a priming stimulus (sympatric vs. allopatric) and a damage treatment (sympatric) were applied. We found no evidence of a fitness cost of priming, given that primed plants without damage showed no reduction in fitness. In contrast, our treatments affected the probability of bud abortion. That is, when damaged plants received no priming or the priming came from an allopatric insect, the likelihood of aborting the first bud was 1.9 times greater compared to plants being primed by their sympatric insect. We also found that damaged plants primed with an allopatric insect produced 14% fewer seeds compared to plants receiving a sympatric priming stimulus. Tolerance to herbivore damage was also the lowest when plants received the priming stimulus from an allopatric insect. Overall, these results suggest that, in our study system, plants recognise their local insect population reducing the negative effect of damage through a tolerance response.