Predation determines different selective pressure on pea aphid host races in a complex agricultural mosaic

Field assessments were conducted to examine the interplay between host plant and predation in complex agricultural mosaic on pea aphid clover and alfalfa races. In one experiment, we examined the relative fitness on clover race (CR) and alfalfa race (AR) pea aphids on broad bean, red clover and alfalfa alone. But because clover is typically grown in a more complex agricultural mosaic with alfalfa and broad bean, a second experiment was conducted to assess the fitness consequences under predation in a more complex agricultural field setting that also included potential apparent competition with AR pea aphids. In a third experiment we tested for the effect of differential host race density on the fitness of the other host race mediated by a predator effect. CR pea aphids always had fitness losses when on broad bean (had lower fitness on broad bean relative to red clover) and fitness benefits when on red clover (higher fitness on red clover relative to broad bean), whether or not in apparent competition with alfalfa race aphids on bean and alfalfa. AR suffered fitness loss on both alfalfa and bean in apparent competition with CR on clover. Therefore we can conclude that the predation rate between host races was highly asymmetrical. The complexity of the agricultural mosaic thus can influence prey selection by predators on different host plants. These may have evolutionary consequences through context dependent fitness benefits on particular host plants.