Seed Nutrition and Defense

To accomplish these diverse and sometimes conflicting goals, the plant must carefully balance the nutrition and structure of its seeds in order to maximize its chances for successful germination. Environmental conditions and the physiological status of the parent plant often fluctuate dramatically both geographically and temporally. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is tremendous plasticity in the nutritional and defensive traits of plant seeds within and among plant species, many of which affect their attractiveness to granivorous entomophages.

Many plants sustain very high levels of granivory (Harper, 1977). Seeds are an extremely rich source of many nutrients required by insects, and many seeds are on par with insect prey in terms of nutrition. Given that they are nutritionally rich, it should surprise no one to find that seeds are defended against granivory by insects. Indeed, predation influences the chemistry and morphology of seeds, as well as their distribution and density. By looking at the relationships among seeds and granivorous entomophages from the seed’s standpoint, hopefully a better understanding of the mechanisms that operate in these interactions is gained, as well as some directions for exploiting granivorous arthropods as beneficial insects.