The ability to adapt to a novel host plant may vary among insect populations with different genetic histories, and colonization of a marginal host may be facilitated by genetic admixture of disparate populations. We assembled populations of the seed beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus (F.), from four continents, and compared their ability to infest two hosts, lentil and pea. We also formed two cross-continent hybrids (Africa × N.A. and Africa × S.A.). In pre-selection assays, survival was only ∼3% in lentil and ∼40% in pea. For three replicate populations per line, colonization success on lentil was measured as cumulative exit holes after 75–175 d. On pea, we estimated the change in larval survival after five generations of selection. Females in all lines laid few eggs on lentil, and survival of F₁ larvae was uniformly <5%. Subsequently, however, the lines diverged considerably in population growth. Performance on lentil was highest in the Africa × N.A. hybrid, which produced far more adults (mean > 11,000) than either parental line. At the other extreme, Asian populations on lentil appeared to have gone extinct. The Africa × N.A. line also exhibited the highest survival on pea, and again performed better than either parent line. However, no line displayed a rapid increase in survival on pea, as is sometimes observed on lentil. Our results demonstrate that geographic populations can vary substantially in their responses to the same novel resource. In addition, genetic admixtures (potentially caused by long-distance transport of infested seeds) may facilitate colonization of an initially poor host.