Journal
BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY
Volume 70, Issue 1, Pages 63-88Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2000.tb00201.x
Keywords
exploitation competition; prey scarcity; feeding preference; habitat shift; aphidophagy; coccidophagy; specialization; enemy free space; migration; speciation
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Coccinellids (ladybird beetles) exhibit considerable diversity in habitat and dietary preference and specificity. This is evident even when comparing species within some coccinellid genera. Resource limitation and competition are suggested as of greatest importance in the evolution of coccinellid habitat preferences. Dietary and habitat specialization has probably occurred in some lineages within broader preferences possessed by generalist ancestors, to avoid the costs associated with migration between habitats and prey switching. Feeding in atypical habitats, on alternative food, when optimal prey are scarce, is likely to have been of great importance in facilitating evolutionary shifts to novel diets and habitats. The broad host ranges of many coccinellid parasitoids and observed interspecific differences in parasitoid prevalence resulting form physiological differences between coccinellid species argue that enemy free space has been of limited importance in habitat and prey shifts in this group. Rapid change may occur in coccinellid foraging patterns, perhaps due to conditioning, and coccinellids may swiftly adapt to new habitats through selection acting on the expression pre-existing traits. Diet, as a determinant of coccinellid migration and gene flow, is likely to affect probable modes of speciation in different coccinellid groups. Parapatric speciation and possibly sympatric speciation are suggested as of possible importance in the genesis of new coccinellid species through prey and habitat shifts. (C) 2000 The Linnean Society of London.
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