[News] Biodiversity itself begets a species cascade, MSU researcher says

[Galapagos]

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Biodiversity feeds on itself, researchers found, as evolving animals open niches for other new species. Such is the case, says a Michigan State University researcher, with a parasite found to be evolving in sequence with an emerging host insect in western Michigan apple trees.

 

 

 

A new species of fruit fly has evolved after changing its mating behavior to favor laying eggs on apples instead of its characteristic hawthorn tree fruit host, MSU entomologist James J. Smith and colleagues reported. As those flies became genetically different from the parent hawthorn fly, so did the parasitic wasps that prey on the flies’ larvae.

 

Biodiversity itself begets a species cascade, MSU researcher says | MSU News | Michigan State University