Oak Trees Have a Sneaky Trick to Starve the Caterpillars Eating Them

An international study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution found that oak trees hit hard by caterpillars in one year delay budburst by about three days the following spring, leaving newly hatched larvae with little fresh food. The shift sharply cuts caterpillar survival and reduces leaf damage to the trees by more than half. Caterpillars […]