Neighbor Effects of Erigeron speciosus and Erigeron elatior on their Insect Pollinators and Herbivores

Studying the relationships between plants and insects is important in natural and agricultural communities. It has been shown that plant community composition has an effect on insect pollinators and herbivores. However, these relationships have only been researched independently and no study has comprehensively investigated the net effects of neighbors on pollinators and herbivores in the same system. In my study, I aimed to understand whether neighbor effects on pollinators differed from neighbor effects on herbivores. I worked with two species, Erigeron speciosus and Erigeron elatior, and arranged plots with varying relative abundances of the two plants. Data recorded included the number of damaged and undamaged flowers of both species, number of pollinator visits over ten minutes, and type of other composite plant neighbors within a one meter radius of the plot. At the end of the flowering period, a sample of flower heads from each plot was collected and the number of flies reared from each species within each plot was recorded. With an increasing number of the focal plant stems, the percent of those flowers damaged decreased. Additionally, with an increasing proportion of the plant neighbor in a plot, damage to the focal plant decreased. Finally, conclusions were not able to be drawn on the effects of neighbors on pollinators in this system due to limited visitation data, but it was found that pollinators did have a clear preference for undamaged flowers over damaged flowers, suggesting that behavior of the herbivore affects the behavior of the pollinator.