a population of a species usually has multiple demes. environments between these demes can differ. demes could, therefore, become locally adapted to their environment. a good example of this is the adaptive deme formation (adf) hypothesis in insects. the adf hypothesis states that herbivorous insects can become adapted to specific host plants in their local environment because local plants can have unique nutrient patches to which insects may become adapted. this hypothesis predicts that less mobile insect demes are more likely to become locally adapted than more dispersive insect. however, a meta-analysis, based on 17 studies on this subject, showed that dispersive insect demes were as likely to become locally adapted as less mobile insects. moreover, this study found a small indication that feeding behaviour might stimulate the local adaptation of demes. endophagous insects were more likely to become locally adapted than exophagous insects. the explanation for this could be that endophagous insects come in more close and continuous contact to the plant’s mechanical, chemical and phenological defensive mechanisms.