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Herbivores can avoid plant defenses by eating plants selectively in space and time. For the winter moth, feeding on oak leaves early in the season maximized the amount of protein and nutrients available to the moth, while minimizing the amount of tannins produced by the tree. [16] Herbivores can also spatially avoid plant defenses.
Viburnum lesquereuxii leaf with insect damage; Dakota Sandstone (Cretaceous) of Ellsworth County, Kansas. Scale bar is 10 mm. Knowledge of herbivory in geological time comes from three sources: fossilized plants, which may preserve evidence of defense (such as spines) or herbivory-related damage; the observation of plant debris in fossilised animal feces; and the structure of herbivore mouthparts.
Herbivores have three primary strategies for dealing with plant defenses: choice, herbivore modification, and plant modification. Feeding choice involves which plants a herbivore chooses to consume. It has been suggested that many herbivores feed on a variety of plants to balance their nutrient uptake and to avoid consuming too much of any one ...
It is classically assumed that tolerance traits do not impose selection on herbivore fitness (Strauss and Agrawal 1999). This is in contrast to traits that confer resistance, which are likely to affect herbivore fitness and lead to a co-evolutionary arms race (Stinchcombe 2002; Espinosa and Fornoni 2006). However, there are possible mechanisms ...
Prickles on a blackberry branch. In plant morphology, thorns, spines, and prickles, and in general spinose structures (sometimes called spinose teeth or spinose apical processes), are hard, rigid extensions or modifications of leaves, roots, stems, or buds with sharp, stiff ends, and generally serve the same function: physically defending plants against herbivory.
Browsing is a type of herbivory in which a herbivore (or, more narrowly defined, a folivore) feeds on leaves, soft shoots, or fruits of high-growing, generally woody plants such as shrubs. [1] This is contrasted with grazing , usually associated with animals feeding on grass or other lower vegetations.
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Body size of herbivores is a key reason underlying the interaction between herbivores and plant diversity, and the body size explains many of the phenomena connected to herbivore-plant interaction. An increase of body size means it requires more nutrients and energy to sustain itself. [28] Small herbivores are less likely to decrease plant ...