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Host use of a specialist lichen-feeder: dealing with lichen secondary metabolites

  • Plant-Animal interactions - Original Paper
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Abstract

Host use by herbivores is largely determined by host properties such as nutrient content and chemical defence against foragers. The impacts of these attributes on a herbivore may largely depend on its life cycle stage. Lichen species are known to differ in nutritional quality and level of chemical defence and, consequently, vary as fodder for herbivores. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of several lichen species and the presence of their secondary metabolites on their use as hosts by a specialist lichen-feeder, Cleorodes lichenaria. This study also addressed, for the first time, how a specialist lichen-feeder deals with different lichen secondary metabolites. In the beginning of their development, larvae grew better on Xanthoria parietina than on the other host lichens, whereas older larvae grew best on Ramalina fraxinea. Lichen secondary chemicals in R. fraxinea and Parmelia sulcata hindered larval growth in the beginning but after 75 days lichen secondary chemicals had no impact on the mass of larvae. Physodic acids in Hypogymnia physodes were lethal to larvae. In general, larvae metabolized 70–95% of ingested lichen secondary chemicals and the rest of these were excreted in frass. Lichen secondary metabolites in P. sulcata restrict and in H. physodes prevent their use as a host for C. lichenaria larvae. Our main finding, the ability of larvae to metabolize several lichen secondary metabolites, indicates digestive adaptation to these chemicals. No signs of sequestration of these chemicals were found.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Oulu, Finland, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and by the Slovak Grant Agency (VEGA 1/4337/07). Mr Mark Goodall has kindly revised the English language of the text.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Oulu, POB 3000, 90014, Oulu, Finland

    Heikki Pöykkö & Marko Hyvärinen

  2. Department of Botany, Institute of Biology and Ecology, P. J. Safarik University, Manesova 23, 04167, Kosice, Slovakia

    Martin Bačkor, Elena Bencúrová, Viktoria Molcanová & Miriam Bačkorová

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  1. Heikki Pöykkö
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  2. Martin Bačkor
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Correspondence to Heikki Pöykkö.

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Communicated by Thomas Hoffmeister.

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Pöykkö, H., Bačkor, M., Bencúrová, E. et al. Host use of a specialist lichen-feeder: dealing with lichen secondary metabolites. Oecologia 164, 423–430 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1682-5

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