Interactions between Herbivorous Insects and Their Host Plants

Dear Colleagues,

Many thousands of insect species obtain their nutrition from plants, primarily by feeding directly on root or foliage tissue or by extracting xylem or phloem sap. Some insects utilize a wide range of host plant species, whereas others are highly host-specific and may have evolved specialized feeding strategies, such as leaf mining and the induction of gall formation. Plant–insect interactions are now studied using a range of scientific approaches, from examining insect performance on different hosts to the measurement of metabolic and physiological responses of plants challenged by feeding insects. Genomic and proteomic methods are now used extensively to assess how plants have evolved to defend themselves against insect herbivores, and, conversely, how insects have evolved to overcome these defences.

From an applied viewpoint, these interactions are often of considerable economic importance when the plant species represent our food and fibre crops, sources of timber, and ornamental or garden specimens. Additionally, conservation of endangered insects, such as rare Lepidoptera, requires consideration of host plant selection by females and the subsequent performance of larvae to indicate the suitability of these hosts. Herbivorous insects are increasingly being considered as beneficial species in terms of their potential value as biocontrol agents of noxious weeds and invasive exotic plants.

This Special Issue of Plants aims to present a collection of high-quality scientific papers that provide significant new information in the applied and fundamental study of plants and insects, and provide a forum to illustrate the diversity of taxa, mechanisms, and scientific approaches involved in the study of plant–insect interactions.

Dr. Simon Hodge
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• basal and induced plant resistance to insect herbivory
• phytohormone responses to insect feeding
• interactions between shoot- and root-feeding insects
• host location by herbivorous insects
• insect adaptations to overcome plant defences
• plant volatiles and host location by insects
• plant–insect interactions and climate change scenarios