Generalist insect herbivores, those recorded as using numerous hosts (tens or even hundreds of species), are not well understood ecologically. We suggest ways to investigate the ecology of these species beyond the practice of accumulating host records. We present reasons why multiple host use by herbivorous insects needs to be quantified in the field, both locally and geographically, and also through time. Further, the host use patterns generated must be based on certain knowledge that cryptic species are not conflated in the results as one species. Such results reveal a lot about the ecology of the species concerned and about generalist–host relationships more widely. This provides a sound basis for the functional significance of multiple host use to be interpreted and tested further. Structured sampling programs conducted previously in the field indicate that generalist insect herbivores are strongly associated with only a relatively small subset of their recorded host species, their primary host plants. A focus on these particular host plants is fundamental to (i) understanding the ecology of the herbivore species in question and (ii) investigating the sensory and behavioural mechanisms associated with host location. We conclude that the principal influence on patterns of multiple host use in the field is the mechanism by which herbivorous insects recognise cues from potential hosts and use them to localise plants. These mechanisms represent species-specific and species-wide adaptations to the usual environment of the species in question. Working from this perspective should contribute substantially to developing a strong and realistic interpretation of the origins and functional significance of multiple host use in herbivorous arthropods.

中文翻译：

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关于通才？模式和过程在研究使用多种寄主物种的食草昆虫中的作用透视

普通昆虫食草动物，记录为使用许多宿主（数十种甚至数百种）的食草动物，在生态学上尚未得到很好的理解。我们建议在积累宿主记录的实践之外，研究这些物种的生态的方法。我们提出了为什么需要在野外对本地和地理上以及随时间进行定量的食草昆虫多宿主使用的原因。此外，所产生的主机使用模式必须基于某些知识，即隐性物种不会作为一种物种混入结果中。这些结果揭示了许多有关物种的生态学以及更广泛的通才与寄主的关系。这为进一步解释和测试多个主机用途的功能重要性提供了良好的基础。先前在该领域进行的结构化采样程序表明，通才昆虫食草动物仅与其记录的寄主物种（其主要寄主植物）的相对较小子集紧密相关。对这些特定寄主植物的关注对于（i）了解所讨论的草食动物物种的生态和（ii）研究与寄主位置相关的感官和行为机制至关重要。我们得出结论，对田间使用多种寄主的方式的主要影响是食草昆虫识别潜在寄主的线索并将其用于植物定位的机制。这些机制代表了特定物种和整个物种对所讨论物种的通常环境的适应。