Poor plant defenses promote invasive beetle's success
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 - 07:31
in Biology & Nature
(PhysOrg.com) -- Invasive species cost more than $100 billion a year in damages in the United States, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. While most researchers attribute their success to a lack of natural predators in their new territory, Cornell researchers offer proof for a less popular explanation: Invasive species fare so well in their new digs because their host species lack an evolutionary history with -- and defenses against -- the new invaders, making the hosts especially vulnerable to attack.