Maternal provisioning can have profound effects on offspring phenotypes, or maternal effects, especially early in life. One ubiquitous form of provisioning is in the makeup of egg. However, only a few studies examine the role of specific egg constituents in maternal effects, especially as they relate to maternal selection (a standardized selection gradient reflecting the covariance between mate...

In a field experiment, the bumblebee, B. ternarius, visited milkweed patches harboring crab spiders, Misumena atia, at a lower frequency than patches free of crab spiders, and honeybees showed a similar but non-significant trend. Two other bumblebee species, B. terricola and B. agans, did not avoid the spider patches. The latter two species are larger than B. ternarius and honeybees and suffer ...

The presence of an endophytic fungus, Acremonium coenophialum, in tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) deterred aphid feeding by Rhopalosiphum padi and Schizaphis graminum. Both species of aphid were unable to survive when confined to endophyte-infected tall fescue plants. Feeding deterrents and toxic factors to R. padi and Oncopeltus fasciatus, large milkweed bug, were primarily associated with a...

Abstract Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) populations have declined over the last two decades, attributable in part to declines its larval host plant, milkweed (Asclepias spp.), across breeding range. Conservation efforts United States call for restoration of 1.3 billion stems into Midwestern landscape. Reaching this goal will require habitat establishment marginal croplands, where there is...