RT Journal Article
T1 Contrasting effects of climate warming on hosts and parasitoids: insights from Rocky Mountain aspen leaf miners and their parasitoids
A1 Shah, Alisha A.
A1 Hamant, Emily
A1 Gallego Rubalcaba, Juan Vicente
A1 Larkin, Beau
A1 Forbes, Andrew A.
A1 Woods, H. Arthur
AB Because temperature has pervasive effects on biological rates, climate warming may alter the outcomes of interactions between insect hosts and their parasitoids, which, for many host species, constitute the single largest source of mortality. Despite growing interest in parasitoid-host responses to climate change, there are few empirical tests of thermal tolerance differences between non-model lepidopteran hosts and their parasitoids and almost none from mountain ecosystems where warming is occurring more rapidly. We examined the thermal ecology of a host–parasitoid interaction in the Rocky Mountains using wild populations of the aspen leaf miner (Phyllocnistis populiella) and a set of previously unknown eulophid parasitoids that attack them. Host and parasitoid development rates were differentially sensitive to temperature. In addition, upper thermal limits of adult parasitoids were lower than those of host caterpillars, and in choice experiments, parasitoids reared at different temperatures showed no plasticity in preferred temperatures. However, when coupled to simulations of leaf microclimates in aspen canopies, these observations suggest, contrary to expectations, that climate warming may potentially benefit parasitoids.
PB The Royal Society
SN 0962-8452
YR 2025
FD 2025-03
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/120110
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/120110
LA eng
NO Shah AA, Hamant E, Rubalcaba JG, Larkin B, Forbes AA, Woods HA. Contrasting effects of climate warming on hosts and parasitoids: insights from Rocky Mountain aspen leaf miners and their parasitoids. Proc R Soc B 2025;292:20242679. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.2679.
NO Funding:This work was supported by a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship to AAS (DBI-1807694), and a grant from MPG North to HAW & AAS.
NO National Science Foundation
NO MPG North
DS Docta Complutense
RD 26 ene 2026