Plant–pathogens and insect pests, hereafter pests, play an important role in structuring ecological communities, yet both native and introduced pests impose significant pressure on wild and managed systems, and pose a threat to food security. Global changes in climate and land use, and transportation of plants and pests around the globe are likely to further increase the range, frequency and severity of pest outbreaks in the future. Thus, there is a critical need to expand on current ecological theory to address these challenges. Here, we outline a phylogenetic framework for the study of plant and pest interactions. In plants, a growing body of work has suggested that evolutionary relatedness, phylogeny, strongly structures plant-pest associations—from pest host breadths and impacts, to their establishment and spread in new regions. Understanding the phylogenetic dimensions of plant-pest associations will help to inform models of invasive species spread, disease and pest risk in crops, and emerging pest outbreaks in native plant communities—which will have important implications for protecting food security and biodiversity into the future.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe’.

植物病原体和害虫（以下简称害虫）在构建生态群落中发挥着重要作用，但本土害虫和外来害虫都给野生和管理系统带来了巨大压力，并对粮食安全构成威胁。全球气候和土地利用的变化以及植物和害虫在全球范围内的运输可能会进一步增加未来害虫爆发的范围、频率和严重程度。因此，迫切需要扩展当前的生态理论来应对这些挑战。在这里，我们概述了研究植物和害虫相互作用的系统发育框架。在植物中，越来越多的研究表明，进化相关性、系统发育强烈地构建了植物与害虫的关联——从害虫寄主的广度和影响，到它们在新地区的建立和传播。了解植物与害虫关联的系统发育维度将有助于了解入侵物种传播、农作物病虫害风险以及本土植物群落新出现的害虫爆发的模型，这将对保护未来的粮食安全和生物多样性产生重要影响。

本文是“传染病宏观生态学：全球寄生虫多样性和动态”主题的一部分。