Host use diversification during range shifts shapes global variation in Lepidopteran dietary breadth

Niche breadths tend to be greater at higher latitudes. This pattern is frequently assumed to emerge from the cumulative effects of multiple, independent local adaptation events along latitudinal environmental gradients, although evidence that generalization is more beneficial at higher-latitude locations remains equivocal. Here I propose an alternative hypothesis: that latitudinal variation in niche breadths emerges as a non-adaptive consequence...