Do plant-eating insect lineages pass through phases of host-use generalism during speciation and host switching? Phylogenetic evidence.

The Oscillation Hypothesis posits that plant-eating insect diversity is generated by cycles of diet breadth expansion and contraction. Although at any given time most plant-eating insect species are host specialists, host-use evolution and speciation tend to entail a phase of generalism. The main evidence for this comes from comparative phylogenetic studies, but with mixed support. Here, I review and add to this evidence. I show that some of the original work that inspired the Oscillation Hypothesis is flawed in a way that leads to spurious inferences about trends in the evolution of diet diversity. And I present a new analysis which fails to support its predictions about patterns of species diversity. On the other hand, some of the published work that claims to reject the Oscillation Hypothesis may actually provide some of the strongest support for it, and I present new analyses which support its prediction that host-use generalism facilitates host-use evolution. In summary, the Oscillation Hypothesis successfully predicts some phylogenetic patterns but not others. Generalism appears to facilitate host-use evolution, but it does not appear to be inevitably chased by host-use specialization and speciation.