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Summary: Evolutionary history predicts plant defense against
an invasive pest
Gaylord A. Desurmonta,1
, Michael J. Donoghueb,1
, Wendy L. Clementb
, and Anurag A. Agrawala,1
a
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; and b
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale
University, New Haven, CT 06520
Contributed by Michael J. Donoghue, February 22, 2011 (sent for review November 17, 2010)
It has long been hypothesized that invasive pests may be facilitated
by the evolutionary naïveté of their new hosts, but this prediction
has never been examined in a phylogenetic framework. To address
the hypothesis, we have been studying the invasive viburnum leaf
beetle (Pyrrhalta viburni), which is decimating North American na-
tive species of Viburnum, a clade of worldwide importance as un-
derstory shrubs and ornamentals. In a phylogenetic field experiment
using 16 species of Viburnum, we show that old-world Viburnum
species that evolved in the presence of Pyrrhalta beetles mount
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