Don provided poor survival, slow development, and low defence, but high pupal weight. Crotalaria micans Link provided the highest survival and fast development but low pupal weight and defence. ornatrix physiological efficiency traded off amongst each other and with defence against adult predation by the spider Lycosa erythrognatha Lucas (Araneae: Lycosidae). I carried out laboratory experiments to test whether physiological efficiency and defence against natural enemies trade off when larvae of the ornate bella moth, Utetheisa ornatrix (L.) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae), a genus-specialist pod-boring herbivore, feeds on leaves and pods of four Crotalaria species (Fabaceae).
These hypotheses on their own are now known to be insufficient explanations for the range of herbivore diet breadths and more integrative approaches consider how trade-offs and ecological contingencies shape host plant use by herbivores. Herbivore diet breadth has been hypothesised to be driven by plant quality (physiological efficiency hypothesis) or natural enemies (enemy-free space hypothesis).
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