Plant characters related to slug feeding: a re ‐analysis of feeding studies using trait data from botanical databases and literature

Abstract Slugs feed on some plant species but not on others for reasons that are not yet fully understood. We re‐examined the two largest studies on the preference of Arion lusitanicus for different plant species. Briner & Frank (1998) measured the consumption index of slugs (CIB) based on the dry leaf mass eaten per day per gram of slug mass. Kozlowski & Kozlowska (2009) also measured a consumption index of slugs (CIK) but on the basis of the area eaten per day per gram of slug mass. The two indices showed a moderate positive rank correlation. Briner & Frank (1998) found that slugs preferred annual to perennial plants and crops rather than wild species. On the other hand, Kozlowski & Kozlowska (2009) found no statistically significant difference in slug preference for annuals, biennials or perennials. Using botanical databases we selected plant traits related to slug herbivory and analysed 141 species. We first analysed the two data sets separately and found that CIB was higher for seedlings with a higher relative growth rate although this result was only marginally statistically significant. In addition, we found that annuals were consumed more than perennials and that cultivated plants were consumed more than wild plants. This is in agreement with the conclusions of Briner & Frank (1998). For CIK slugs consumed less from plants with high dry matter content (DMC). The use of classification and regression tree models solves the problem of analysing data...
Source: Annals of Applied Biology - Category: Biology Authors: Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research