Specialization and simple sensory environments increase accuracy in host-searching cabbage white butterflies

Individuals often exploit only one resource when many are locally available but how such specialization varies with ecological context remains unclear. In insects, host plant specialization may be driven by a female’s ability to process stimuli while searching for hosts. In complex environments, where females experience a diverse array of sensory stimuli, adopting a specialized search strategy might allow them to make more accurate choices by focusing attention on specific stimuli. We tested this idea by allowing naïve cabbage white butterflies (Pieris rapae) to search for two host species (radish and cabbage) in simple (one non-host species) and complex (four non-host species) environments. Results indicate that non-host complexity had no effect on butterfly specialization. However, certain simple non-host environments did increase host-finding accuracy. Community complexity, therefore, did not drive host specialization as expected but did increase the difficulty of the butterfly’s foraging task.  Specialized individuals were more accurate than generalists, but only when they were host-specific to cabbage, suggesting that only certain specialized strategies are linked to foraging advantages.