Diet quality influences arthropod performance under changing environments. However, little is known about how host plant species may influence the responses of polyphagous insects to climate stressors despite their exploitation of different plant species within and across seasons. Against this background, we examined the effects of host plant species (Zea mays L. and Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) on the thermal tolerance of Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) measured as lower and upper thermal activity limits, chill coma recovery time and heat knockdown time. Experiments were conducted on field-collected larvae and laboratory-reared F₁ larval offspring from each of the two host species. Our results showed significant host plant effects on both cold and heat tolerance. Insects from sweet sorghum showed higher thermal resilience (cold and heat) relative to those from maize as indicated by their low lower thermal activity limits (0.73 and 0.02 °C magnitude, respectively) and high upper thermal activity limits (0.5 and 0.28 °C magnitude, respectively). Both field and F₁ larval populations from sweet sorghum recovered faster from chill coma and also took longer to be knocked down by acute heat stress, further affirming their superior thermal tolerance to those that fed on maize. These results therefore indicate that host plant species may potentially mediate thermal fitness of C. partellus. Despite wide adoption of sweet sorghum as a climate resilient crop owing to its drought tolerance and perennial nature, our findings suggest this may come at a cost of enhanced C. partellus performance and pest pressure under changing temperature environments.

中文翻译：

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寄主植物对Chilo partellus（Swinhoe）的热适应性的响应（鳞翅目：Crombidae）

在不断变化的环境中，饮食质量会影响节肢动物的性能。然而，关于寄主植物物种如何影响多食性昆虫对气候胁迫的响应知之甚少，尽管它们在季节内和跨季节利用了不同的植物物种。在这种背景下，我们检查了宿主植物物种的影响（玉蜀黍L.和高粱大号。上的热耐受性荞）二化螟partellus（温侯）：如较低和较高的热活性的限制，冷硬昏迷测量（鳞翅目草螟科）恢复时间和热击倒时间。对野外采集的幼虫和实验室饲养的F ₁进行了实验两种寄主物种各自的幼体后代。我们的结果表明寄主植物对耐寒性和耐热性都有显着影响。与甜玉米相比，甜高粱的昆虫表现出较高的热复原力（冷和热），这表明它们的热活动下限较低（分别为0.73和0.02°C）和热活动上限较高（0.5和0.28°C） ， 分别）。甜高粱的田间和F ₁幼虫种群从寒冷的昏迷中恢复得更快，并且被急性热胁迫击倒所需的时间也更长，这进一步证明了它们比以玉米为食的种群具有更高的耐热性。因此，这些结果表明宿主植物物种可能会介导C. partellus的热适应性。。尽管广泛采用甜高粱作为由于其耐旱性和长期性气候弹性作物，我们的研究结果表明这可能会在提高成本C. partellus性能在不断变化的温度环境和病虫害的压力。