Dietary-plasticity

Guides

• Efferia staminea

  Straw-faced Hammertail

  Efferia staminea is a species of robber fly in the family Asilidae. It has been studied for its predatory behavior, with research documenting how its diet varies temporally and spatially in response to prey availability. The species exhibits opportunistic feeding patterns, shifting prey composition based on local prey abundance—including documented increases in ant predation during mating swarms of Formica subpolita. It serves as a generalist predator in grassland ecosystems.

  Asilidaerobber-flypredatorgeneralist-predatorgrasslandFormica-subpolitadietary-plasticitycannibalismtemporal-dynamicsspatial-dynamics

• Schistocerca shoshone

  green bird grasshopper, green valley grasshopper

  Schistocerca shoshone is a large grasshopper in the bird grasshopper group, recognized by its green coloration. The species exhibits notable dietary plasticity: while fundamentally polyphagous, populations have been observed specializing on single host plants including Simmondsia and Prosopis when these dominate local vegetation. Genetic differences between populations may underlie this feeding behavior variation. It ranges across southwestern North America and has been documented as far north as Colorado.

  grasshopperbird-grasshopperlocustpolyphagymonophagydietary-plasticitysouthwestern-North-AmericaripariandesertSimmondsiaProsopis