Abstract: The over-compensation of crop plants for insect feedings arouses great interests, but little attention has been paid to the explanation of the phenomenon. This paper presents a concept of tediousness in growth of crops which is found frequently in plant height, leaf area, number of branches or tillers, number of reproductive organs, duration of growth stages and the ratio of biomass to economic yield. The tediousness increases with the increasing input of subsidiary energy. Essentially, the tediousness in growth is an ecological strategy of an organism to adapt itself to the fluctuating environment, increasing the stability of reproduction and decreasing the risk of extinction. However, this inherent property causes a waste of energy and is a burden on the higher crop yields when the environmental conditions are improved or when the crops are supported and protected by human being. The reduction of tediousness with practices of crop growing and breeding has increased the crop yields. Insects can reduce the tediousness in some instances, which is proposed as a basic explanation of the over-compensation of crops for insect feedings.

Key words: Growth tediousness, Over-compensation, Ecological strategy, Insect pest control