Frances S. Chew

Tufts University | Tufts · Department of Biology

A rapidly changing climate has the potential to interfere with the timing of environmental cues that ectothermic organisms rely on to initiate and regulate life history events. Short‐lived ectotherms that exhibit plasticity in their life history could increase the number of generations per year under warming climate. If many individuals successfull...

The habitat of the green-veined white butterfly Pieris oleracea in eastern North America has undergone invasions by the exotic plant garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), which is replacing native hosts of P. oleracea such as Cardamine diphylla. A. petiolata was originally lethal to most larvae of the native butterfly but during the past 20+ years i...

Population sizes and range of the native butterfly Pieris oleracea declined after habitat loss and parasitism by an exotic braconid wasp (Cotesia glomerata) introduced to control the exotic invasive butterfly Pieris rapae. Further declines are attributed to the invasive exotic weed garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), an oviposition sensory trap on...

Watercress obtained in food stores in the United States contained significant levels of epiglucobarbarin [(R)-2-hydroxy-2-phenylethylglucosinolate] and low levels of the 2S-epimer glucobarbarin identified by an HPLC+NMR+MS/MS approach. Typical combined levels were 4-7 μmol/g dry wt. The hydrolysis product, 5-phenyloxazolidine-2-thione (barbarin), w...

There have been reports of butterflies that oviposit on non-native plants that do not support the development of the larvae, and the fitness cost of this behavior has been estimated in one such case. However, the long-term consequences of this fitness cost for the population dynamics of such butterflies have not been studied. Here we report changes...

Plants can alter physiological and developmental trajectories in response to environmental cues by means of phenotypic plasticity. While cases of immediate plastic responses to different environments are well studied, phenotypic changes can also be delayed and occur in later life cycle stages. In this study, we investigated latent phenotypic plasti...

In an attempt to identify chemical signals governing the general flower and silique feeding behavior of larvae of the orange tip butterfly, Anthocharis cardamines (L.), we investigated feeding behavior and chemistry of two major host plants: Cardamine pratensis L. and Alliaria petiolata (Bieb.) Cavara & Grande (garlic mustard). Larvae reportedly fe...

Background/Question/Methods Abiotic stress can directly limit plant growth, and plants modify resource allocation to defense and reproduction accordingly. Few studies, however, have addressed the potential for delayed, “latent” responses to stress signals. Delayed plasticity based on earlier stress signals may allow a plant to respond to expectati...

A novel glucosinolate, 3-(hydroxymethyl)pentylglucosinolate, was present at high levels in Cardamine pratensis L. from eastern North America and in commercially obtained seeds, but not in C. pratensis plants from southern Scandinavia. Glucosinolates in a number of accessions of C. pratensis included glucosinolates with the side chains 1-methylethyl...

Background/Question/Methods Migratory behavior is one specific behavioral mechanism many species have adopted to reduce the costs of utilizing certain resources. Environmental cues such as rainfall patterns, day length and temperature often provide the stimulus needed to trigger migratory behavior in terrestrial species. Water resource quality has...

Exotic plants may act as population sinks or evolutionary traps for native herbivores. The native butterfly Pieris oleracea lays eggs on garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata, but larvae develop very poorly on this exotic invasive plant. We examined oviposition preference of individual females and larval performance of their offspring for individuals...

We evaluated the effects of landscape characteristics associated with urbanization, as well as local features, on butterfly species richness at four spatial scales (50, 150, 500, and 1,000m from survey plots). We also evaluated these effects separately by butterfly guilds based on their region-wide rarity and on degree of specialization. The distri...

The butterfly Pieris napi (L.) and relatives exemplify recently evolving taxa, exhibiting variation that makes their evolutionary dynamics interesting, but their systematics difficult. Wing-pattern characters commonly used to distinguish these Holarctic insects display both genetic polymorphism and environmentally-cued polyphenism. Often, these cau...

1. Exotic invasive species can influence population dynamics of native species through top-down or bottom-up forces. The present study examined separate and interactive effects of multiple exotic species invasions on the native mustard white butterfly, Pieris napi oleracea Harris (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), using a stochastic simulation model. 2. P. n...

Caterpillars of Pieris rapae L. (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) convert 4-hydroxybenzylglucosinolate (sinalbin) in brassicaceous plants into 4-hydroxybenzylcyanide sulfate (HBC sulfate), with 4-hydroxybenzylcyanide (HBC) as intermediate. This apparently serves as a detoxification, because alternative formation of a mustard oil is avoided. We confirmed the...

Habitat requirements and population persistence were investigated in three damselfly species, all coastal plain pond specialists: Enallagma recurvatum, E. laterale, and E. pictum. Because of geographic restriction, two are of special concern to conservation, E. recurvatum and E. laterale. We surveyed more than 70 ponds on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a...

There are at least two approaches that assist students in understanding complexity and differing interpretations about human diversity and race. Because differing perspectives emerge from data perceived at different levels, different scales provide a tool for understanding relationships among perspectives and understanding the differential importan...

Leaf surfaces provide the ecologically relevant landscapes to those organisms that encounter or colonize the leaf surface. Leaf surface topography directly affects microhabitat availability for colonizing microbes, microhabitat quality and acceptability for insects, and the efficacy of agricultural spray applications. Prior detailed mechanistic stu...

Pieris specificity for crucifers was recorded as early as 1660 by John Ray (Mickel, 1973) and the chemical affinity of glucosinolates produced by plants in the four major Pieris host plant families—Cruciferae, Tropaeolaceae, Capparaceae, and Resedaceae—was established by Guignard in the 1890s [reviewed by Feltwell, 1982]. (Verschaffelt 1910) demons...

Differential acceptance of garlic mustard,Alliaria petiolata byPieris rapae L. andP. napi oleracea is explained by their differential sensitivities to oviposition stimulants and deterrents in the plant. Fractions containing the stimulants and deterrents were isolated by solvent partitioning between water and n-butanol and by open-column chromatogra...

When we assess suitability of potential host plants for insects, we often measure components of fitness, e.g., survivorship, larval developmental time, pupal weight, and adult fecundity. But intensity of selection on different fitness components might vary between species. The relative importance of two fitness components (larval developmental time...

We studied a Nearctic flower bud-feeding insect pest, Anthonomus musculus Say (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) cranberry weevil, to determine whether a combination of adult host plant finding ability and feeding preferences for host plants account for weevil distribution on host plant species. A. musculus feeds on as many as 12 native, ericaceous plant...

Temporal variation in host availability between years may be the dominant parameter determining host associations in a large assemblage of pierid butterflies (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) feeding on plants (Capparales) living in a seasonal environment (Morocco). Stenophagous butterflies are associated with hosts whose densities are predictable from year...

The glucosinolate-thioglucosidase system potentially generates hundreds of compounds, but knowledge of autolysis conditions permits prediction of the products. How these products are generated, how their precursors are distributed and compartmentalized, and how these products affect herbivorous insects, pathogens, other plants, and potential symbio...

We tested the hypothesis that failure to establish symbiosis with vesicular-arbuscular (VA) mycorrhizal fungi is correlated with glucosinolate concentrations in Brassica, a representative genus of the Capparales. Brassica campestris and B. napus cultivars (brassica) with a range of glucosinolate concentrations (7–524 μmol g1 f. wt in roots) were gr...

We report studies on the butterfly-hostplant communities in the species-rich area of west central Morocco. Pieridae feeding on Capparales form two distinct ecological guilds: inflorescence feeders and folivores. Several members of each guild may synchronously occur in sympatry. Substantial levels of cannibalism and inter-specific predation occur am...

In situ observations of a vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizai fungus Glomus mosseae (Nicol. & Gerd.) Gerdemann & Trappe with roots of Brassica cultivars containing low and normal levels of glucosinolates (7 to 524 mg g−1fresh weight) revealed differences between fungal penetrations of all Brassica roots compared to compatible hosts. Hyphae penetrated...

Interactions of two sympatric, closely related Pieris species, indigenous P. oleracea and naturalized P. rapae, are described. The spatial and temporal distribution of adults and juveniles indicates broad overlap, but each species occupies a habitat or utilizes a foodplant not successfully exploited by the other. Pieris oleracea utilizes indigenous...

Larvae of five Nearctic Pieris butterflies accept a wide range of native and naturalized crucifers under laboratory test conditions. Preferences among crucifers are usually statistical rather than absolute. Caterpillars do not necessarily reject plants that do not support larval growth in favor of those that do. Preferences are not significantly al...

Oviposition and larval feeding behaviors of the crucifer specialist Pieris napi macdunnoughii correlate with leaf glucosinolate profils of plant species in a natural community. Profiles are species-specific in this group of eight Cruciferae, but particular glucosinolates are shared by subsets of the community. Pieris accepts two lethal naturalized...

The oviposition behavior of two montane Pieris butterfly species is described and discussed in relation to potential evolution of foodplant utilization. Oviposition behavior toward several crucifer species was examined in relation to 1) larval growth requirements; 2) the relative abundances of these species; 3) preferences of individual females; an...

The numbers, dispersal behavior, aging and residence, and Wrightian neighborhood configurations of three species of Colias butterflies have been studied in central Colorado, using mark-release-recapture techniques as major tools. All populations studied have nonoverlapping generations and mature one brood each year. A brief general review of these...

Two Colorado populations of Pieris butterflies show a spectrum of larval growth responses to potential foodplant crucifer species growing in montane habitats. Analysis of larval growth responses to this array suggests potential selection for differential utilization of these species: 1) available crucifers vary considerably in the rates of larval s...