Insects allocate eggs adaptively according to plant age, stress, disease or damage.

Most herbivorous insects can only survive on a small subset of the plant species in its environment. Consequently, adult females have evolved sophisticated sensory recognition systems enabling them to find and lay eggs on plants supporting offspring development. This leads to the preference-performance or 'mother knows best' hypothesis that insects should be attracted to host plants that confer higher offspring survival.

Interactions of Helicoverpa punctigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) Larvae and Adults With Four Native Host Plants Relative to Field Use Patterns.

Generalist insect herbivores may be recorded from a great variety of host plants. Under natural conditions, however, they are almost invariably associated with a few primary host species on which most of the juveniles develop. We experimentally investigated the interaction of the generalist moth Helicoverpa punctigera Wallengren (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) with four of its native host plants, two designated primary hosts and two secondary hosts (based on field observations).

Tiny insects against the weather-flight and foraging patterns of Frankliniella schultzei (Thripidae) not altered by onset of rainfall.

To survive in nature, organisms may need to take direct action to mitigate specific dangers from their environmental surroundings. Tiny flying insects are thought to be at particular risk from rainfall that would be of negligible concern to larger animals. The study species Frankliniella schultzei is a thrips that inhabits flowers and feeds mostly on petal tissue and pollen.