Are day-flying moths more specialized in larval dietary breadth?-a test of the "Salient Aroma Hypothesis" in a predominantly nocturnal clade.

Although diurnality is widespread across Lepidoptera and has evolved many times independently, its causes and ecological implications are yet poorly understood. The "Salient Aroma Hypothesis" (SAH) postulates that diurnal insect herbivores are overall more specialized in dietary breadth than species active at night. It is furthermore assumed that diurnality evolved more frequently in species that live in cooler environments.

How do host plant use and seasonal life cycle relate to insect body size: A case study on European geometrid moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae).

We used European geometrid moths (>630 species) as a model group to investigate how life history traits linked to larval host plant use (i.e., diet breadth and host-plant growth form) and seasonal life cycle (i.

"Into and Out of" the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Himalayas: Centers of origin and diversification across five clades of Eurasian montane and alpine passerine birds.

Encompassing some of the major hotspots of biodiversity on Earth, large mountain systems have long held the attention of evolutionary biologists. The region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is considered a biogeographic source for multiple colonization events into adjacent areas including the northern Palearctic. The faunal exchange between the QTP and adjacent regions could thus represent a one-way street ("out of" the QTP).

The trinity of ecological contrasts: a case study on rich insect assemblages by means of species, functional and phylogenetic diversity measures.

Background: The 'classical' concept of species diversity was extended in the last decades into other dimensions focusing on the functional and phylogenetic diversity of communities. These measures are often argued to allow a deeper understanding of the mechanisms shaping community assembly along environmental gradients. Because of practical impediments, thus far only very few studies evaluated the performance of these diversity measures on large empirical data sets.