Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.bg79cnprr

Description of the data and file structure

The dataset contains measurements recorded in cafeteria trials to assess feeding preferences of two alpine herbivores, caterpillars of the Arctic moth (Gynaephora groenlandica) and collared pikas (Ochotona collaris), on the Arctic willow (Salix arctica). Full details of the experimental design can be found in the published paper.

REFERENCE: Barrio, I.C., Bueno, C.G. and Hik, D.S., 2026. Can Herbivore Feeding Preferences Reinforce the Female‐Biased Sex Ratio in an Alpine Willow? Ecology and Evolution, 16(6):e73816. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.73816

Contact: Isabel C Barrio (isabel@lbhi.is)

Files and variables

File: cafeterias.R

Description: R script to run all analyses presented in the paper

File: cafeterias_caterpillars.csv

Description: dataset for the caterpillar cafeteria experiments

Variables

• caterpillar: caterpillar ID
• age: caterpillar age (old or young: 1-2 instar)
• date: date when trial was conducted
• species: species of plant (Salix arctica)
• position: position of the plant sample within the cafeteria set up (1: upper left, 2: upper right, 3: lower left, 4: lower right)
• plant.code: plant ID for the eight male and eight female plants used in the study (code: number-sex, e.g. 1M)
• plant.sex: plant sex (male, female)
• ileaves: initial number of leaves for each plant sample
• iweight: initial weight of plant (g)
• fleaves: final number of leaves for each plant sample
• fweight: final weight of plant (g)
• herbivory: code for herbivory 0-4 (not eaten to completely eaten) for each plant sample
• c: dehydration factor; weight gained/lost (g) by each plant species
• eaten: weight (g) eaten by the caterpillar, taking into account the dehydration factor (proportion)

File: cafeterias_pikas.csv

Description: dataset for the pika cafeteria experiments

Variables

• pika: ID code for each pika used in the cafeterias
• area: area within the study area (greenhouses, KLM talus)
• date: date when the cafeteria was run
• trial: number of trial (3 trials per pika on consecutive days)
• plant.code: plant ID for the eight male and eight female plants used in the study (code: number-sex, e.g. 1M)
• plant.sex: plant sex (male, female)
• leaves.removed: number of leaves removed from the cafeteria tubes

Code/software

All analyses were conducted in R 4.2.1 (R Development Core Team 2023). Code for running the analyses is available here (cafeterias.R), but is also openly available on GitHub: https://github.com/icbarrio/sex-biased_herbivory.git

Access information

Other publicly accessible locations of the data:

• https://github.com/icbarrio/sex-biased_herbivory.git