Titre du document / Document title

Aerial dispersal and host plant selection by neonate Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis (Lepidoptera: Psychidae)

Auteur(s) / Author(s)

MOORE Robert G. ⁽¹⁾ ; HANKS Lawrence M. ⁽²⁾ ;

Affiliation(s) du ou des auteurs / Author(s) Affiliation(s)

⁽¹⁾ United States Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, North, Attention: MCHB-AN Entomological Sciences Division, Maryland, ETATS-UNIS
⁽²⁾ Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ETATS-UNIS

Résumé / Abstract

1. Neonate evergreen bagworms, Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis (Haworth) (Lepidoptera: Psychidae), disperse by dropping on a strand of silk, termed silking, and ballooning on the wind. Larvae construct silken bags with fragments of plant foliage. This species is highly polyphagous, feeding on more than 125 species of woody plants of 45 families. The larvae commonly infests juniper (Juniperus spp.) and arborvitae (Thuja spp.), but rarely feed on deciduous hosts such as maples. The hypothesis is proposed that polyphagy in T. ephemeraeformis is maintained by variation among larvae in dispersal behaviour, and time constraints on the opportunity to disperse, but patterns of host species preference result from a predisposition for larvae to settle on arborvitae and juniper but disperse from other hosts. 2. Consistent with that hypothesis, laboratory experiments revealed: (a) starved larvae varied in their tendency to disperse from paper leaf models; (b) starved larvae readily silked only during their first day; (c) larvae became increasingly sedentary the longer they were exposed to plant foliage; (d) when provided with several opportunities to silk, larvae became sedentary after exposure to arborvitae foliage, but repeatedly silked after exposure to maple (Acer species) foliage or paper; and (e) larvae were less inclined to silk from foliage of arborvitae than from maple. 3. Field experiments supported the hypothesis by demonstrating that: (a) neonates tended to disperse from maple leaves while larvae older than 1 day tended to settle and remain; and (b) neonates were less likely to disperse from arborvitae and juniper trees than from maples.

Revue / Journal Title

Ecological entomology   ISSN 0307-6946   CODEN EENTDT 

Source / Source

2004, vol. 29, n^o3, pp. 327-335 [9 page(s) (article)] (1 p.1/4)

Langue / Language

Anglais

Editeur / Publisher

Blackwell Science, Oxford, ROYAUME-UNI  (1976) (Revue)

Mots-clés anglais / English Keywords

Invertebrata ; Arthropoda ; Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Animal plant relation ; Psychidae ; Host plant selection ; Phytophagous ; Larva ; Animal population ; Wind ; Dispersion ;

Mots-clés français / French Keywords

Invertebrata ; Arthropoda ; Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Relation animal végétal ; Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis ; Psychidae ; Choix plante hôte ; Phytophage ; Larve ; Population animale ; Vent ; Dispersion ;

Mots-clés espagnols / Spanish Keywords

Invertebrata ; Arthropoda ; Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Relación animal vegetal ; Psychidae ; Selección planta huesped ; Fitófago ; Larva ; Población animal ; Viento ; Dispersión ;

Localisation / Location

INIST-CNRS, Cote INIST : 3551, 35400011030104.0100