Limits on populations of herbivorous insects

Abstract

Herbivorous insect populations are necessarily limited by biotic and abiotic factors. This dissertation seeks to uncover some of those limiting factors using using synthetic comparative statistical analyses including meta-analysis and path modeling. I conduct a meta-analysis on interspecific competition between herbivorous insects, a meta-analysis on stressor interactions on the health of honey bees, and a series of path models on the spatial diversity of aphids. I report a number of novel findings, including that competition limits the populations of herbivorous insects, that anthropogenic honey bee stressors interact antagonistically, and that abotic factors play an important role in the spatial diversity of aphids.