The role of evolving niche choice in herbivore adaptation to host plants

Individuals living in heterogeneous environments often choose microenvironments that provide benefits to their fitness. Theory predicts that such “niche choice” can promote rapid adaptation to novel environments and help maintain genetic diversity. An open question of large applied importance is how niche choice and niche choice evolution affect the evolution of insecticide resistance in phytophagous insects. We, therefore, developed an individual-based model based on phytophagous insects to examine the evolution of insecticide resistance and host plant choice via oviposition preferences. To find biologically realistic parameter ranges, we performed an empirical literature survey on insecticide resistance in major agricultural pests and also conducted a density-dependent survival experiment using potato beetles. We find that, in comparison to a scenario where individuals randomly oviposit eggs on toxic or non-toxic plants, the evolution of niche choice generally leads to slower evolution of resistance and facilitates the coexistence of different phenotypes. Our simulations also reveal that recombination rate and dominance effects can influence the evolution of both niche choice and resistance. Thus, this study provides new insights into the effects of niche choice on resistance evolution and highlights the need for more studies on the genetic basis of resistance and choice.