For some animals, the habitat which they first experience can influence the type of habitat which they select later in life and, thus, potentially their population distribution and dynamics. However, for many insect herbivores, whose natal habitat may consist of a single hostplant, the consequences of natal hostplant experience remain untested in landscapes relevant to the adult, which may select not only among plants, but among plant patches. As a first step towards understanding how natal hostplant experience shapes patterns of insect feeding damage in landscapes relevant to adults, we conducted partially caged field experiments with diamondback moths that were reared on either mustard or collard plants and then allowed to choose among and within patches of plants that varied in plant density and composition. We predicted that natal hostplant experience would interact with patch size and composition to influence the number of diamondback moth offspring and feeding damage per plant. As predicted, when moths were reared on collards, we found more offspring on and damage to collard plants in four-collard patches than in two-collard patches (i.e., resource concentration), but no difference when moths were reared on mustards. Contrary to predictions, we found no difference in the number of offspring on or damage to mixed plant patches compared with two- or four-collard plant patches regardless of natal hostplant type. Our research suggests that prior hostplant experience has complex consequences for how insects and their feeding damage are distributed in patchy environments and highlights the need for future research in this area.

对于某些动物来说，他们最初经历的栖息地会影响他们以后生活中选择的栖息地的类型，从而可能影响它们的种群分布和动态。但是，对于许多昆虫食草动物，它们的生境可能只由一种寄主植物组成，其成年寄主植物经验的后果在与成虫有关的景观中尚未得到检验，不仅可以在植物中选择，而且可以在植物斑块中进行选择。作为了解成年寄主植物如何影响与成年有关的景观中昆虫取食损害的方式的第一步，我们进行了部分笼养田间试验，试验了小菜蛾在芥菜或羽衣甘蓝植物上饲养的情况，然后在其斑块之间和内部进行选择。植物的密度和成分各不相同。我们预测，原生宿主植物的经验将与斑块大小和组成相互作用，从而影响小菜蛾后代的数量和每株植物的摄食危害。正如预测的那样，当将蛾子放在羽衣甘蓝上时，我们发现在四羽牧草上的羽衣甘蓝植物的后代和受损程度要比在两个羽衣甘蓝的牧草上的受损（即资源集中），但是在芥菜上饲养蛾子时没有差异。与预测相反，我们发现与两羽或四羽植物补丁相比，混合后的植物补丁的后代数量或损坏的数量没有差异，而与新生宿主植物类型无关。我们的研究表明，先前的寄主植物经验对昆虫及其摄食损害如何在斑驳的环境中分布具有复杂的影响，并强调了对该领域未来研究的需求。