Are global change parameters, such as increased mean temperatures, extreme weather events, and loss of biodiversity favoring generalist versus specialist organisms? To answer this question, we need to better understand ecological specialization and how it is affected by environmental change or how it varies across gradients. Using 18-years of empirical data from Ecuador on interactions between host plants and caterpillars collected from tropical forests along elevational gradients, we found that specialists are locally more abundant than generalists. The findings also revealed that generalist caterpillars achieve greater prevalence across the landscape. Concerns about habitat loss and other perturbations have prompted additional questions about associations between diet specialization and caterpillar abundance. Here, we examine variation in plant-insect networks across disturbance and elevational gradients in the Eastern Ades of Ecuador. The research will close knowledge gaps about how the complexity of biotic communities is affected by global change and will contribute to tropical conservation efforts by identifying how specialist versus generalist organisms respond differently to global change and how that could affect ecosystem services that support local communities.