Speciation in herbivorous insects has received considerable attention during the last few decades. Much of this group's diversity originates from adaptive population divergence onto different host plants, which often involves the evolution of specialized patterns of host choice behaviour. Differences in host choice often translates directly into divergence in mating sites, and therefore positive assortative mating will be created which will act as a strong barrier to gene flow. In this study, we first explored whether host choice is a genetically determined trait in the sympatric willow and birch host races of the leaf feeding beetle Lochmaea capreae, or whether larval experience influences adult host choice. Once we had established that host choice is a genetically based trait we determined its genetic architecture. To achieve this, we employed a reciprocal transplant design in which offspring from pure willow and birch cross-types, F1, F2 and backcrosses were raised on each host plant and their preference was determined upon reaching adulthood. We then applied joint-scaling analysis to uncover the genetic architecture of host preference. Our results suggest that rearing host does not have a pronounced effect on adult's host choice; rather the segregation pattern implies the existence of genetic loci affecting host choice in these host races. The joint-scaling analysis revealed that population differences in host choice are mainly influenced by the contribution of additive genetic effects and also maternally inherited cytoplasmic effects. We explore the implications of our findings for evolutionary dynamics of sympatric host race formation and speciation.
Keywords: Gene action; Joint-scaling analysis; Larval conditioning; Plant–herbivore interaction; Sympatric speciation.