text: Herbivores are dependent on plants for food and have evolved mechanisms to obtain this food despite the evolution of a diverse arsenal of plant defenses. Herbivore adaptations to plant defense have been likened to offensive traits and consist of adaptations that allow increased feeding and use of a host plant. Relationships between herbivores and their host plants often result in reciprocal evolutionary change, called co-evolution. When an herbivore eats a plant, it selects for plants that can mount a defensive response. In cases where this relationship demonstrates specificity (the evolution of each trait is due to the other) and reciprocity (both traits must evolve), the species are thought to have co-evolved.
  The "escape and radiation" mechanism for co-evolution presents the idea that adaptations in herbivores and their host plants have been the driving force behind speciation and have played a role in the radiation of insect species during the age of angiosperms. Some herbivores have evolved ways to hijack plant defenses to their own benefit by sequestering these chemicals and using them to protect themselves from predators. Plant defenses against herbivores are generally not complete, so plants also tend to evolve some tolerance to herbivory.