Consequences of exotic host use: impacts on Lepidoptera and a test of the ecological trap hypothesis

Investigating the effects of invasive species on native biodiversity is one of the most pressing challenges in ecology. Our goal in this study was to quantify the effects of invasive plants on butterfly and moth communities. In addition, we sought to elucidate the fitness consequences of non-native hosts on lepidopterans. We conducted a meta-analysis on a total of 76 studies which provided data on larval performance, survival, oviposition preference, abundance, and species richness of Lepidoptera on native and exotic plants. Overwhelmingly, we found that performance and survival were reduced for larvae developing on exotic hosts, relative to native hosts. At the community level, alien plant invasion was associated with a reduction in the overall abundance and richness of lepidopteran communities. We found that lepidopterans did not show strong oviposition preference for native hosts. This result suggests that many invasive plant species may decrease lepidopteran abundance by providing a target for oviposition where larvae have a relatively poor chance of survival. Among studies that tested both survival and preference on exotic hosts, 37.5 % found evidence for novel hosts that could function as ecological traps (the figure was 18 % when considering studies that only assayed larval performance). Thus, although the majority of novel hosts included in our analyses are not likely to act as ecological traps, the potential clearly exists for this effect, and the role of ecological traps should be considered along with other aspects of global change impacting natural communities.