Received: 6 June 2016 | Revised: 15 September 2016 | Accepted: 30 September 2016 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2564 ORIGINAL RESEARCH Host- mediated shift in the cold tolerance of an invasive insect Amy C. Morey1 | Robert C. Venette2 | Erica C. Nystrom Santacruz1 | Laurel A. Mosca1 | W. D. Hutchison1 1Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA Abstract 2USDA, Forest Service, North Central While many insects cannot survive the formation of ice within their bodies, a few spe- Research Station, St. Paul, MN, USA cies can. On the evolutionary continuum from freeze- intolerant (i.e., freeze- avoidant) Correspondence to freeze- tolerant insects, intermediates likely exist that can withstand some ice for- Amy C. Morey, Department of Entomology, mation, but not enough to be considered fully freeze tolerant. Theory suggests that University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA. Email:
[email protected] freeze tolerance should be favored over freeze avoidance among individuals that have Funding information low relative fitness before exposure to cold. For phytophagous insects, numerous This work was supported by the National studies have shown that host (or nutrition) can affect fitness and cold- tolerance strat- Science Foundation- Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship egy, respectively, but no research has investigated whether changes in fitness caused on Introduced Species and Genotypes by different hosts of polyphagous species could lead to systematic changes in cold- program at the University of Minnesota [DGE- 0653827; to ACM.]; the University tolerance strategy. We tested this relationship with the invasive, polyphagous moth, of Minnesota Marion Brooks Wallace and Epiphyas postvittana (Walker). Host affected components of fitness, such as larval sur- Graduate School Fellowship [to ACM.]; the University of Minnesota’s Undergraduate vivorship rates, pupal mass, and immature developmental times.