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PARASITOIDS AND PREDATORS OF THE DOUGLAS-FIR TUSSOCK MOTH, ORGYIA PSEUDOTSUGATA (LEPIDOPTERA: LYMANTRIDAE), IN LOW TO MODERATE POPULATIONS IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

D. L. Dahlsten ,
R. F. Luck ,
E. I. Schlinger ,
J. M. Wenz  and
W. A. Copper
D. L. Dahlsten
Affiliation:
Division of Biological Control, University of California, Berkeley
R. F. Luck
Affiliation:
Division of Biological Control, University of California, Berkeley
E. I. Schlinger
Affiliation:
Division of Biological Control, University of California, Berkeley
J. M. Wenz
Affiliation:
Division of Biological Control, University of California, Berkeley
W. A. Copper
Affiliation:
Division of Biological Control, University of California, Berkeley
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Abstract

Douglas-fir tussock moth, Orgyia pseudotsugata (McDunnough), populations were studied on white fir at four areas in central Sierra Nevada mountains of California during 1971–73. Life tables were constructed for four populations in El Dorado County. The number of eggs per egg mass decreased and the percentage eggs parasitized doubled with declining moth populations. Hymenopterous parasitoids were collected from all immature stages of the moth: one egg parasitoid, Telenomus californicus Ashmead, six species of larval parasitoids, principally, Hyposoter sp., and 13 species of larval–pupal parasitoids. Tachinids were predominant and accounted for 73% of the parasitoidism of the cocoons in 1971. The apparent mortality of female pupae due to the parasitoid complex was greater than 97% in 1971 and 75% in 1972. One population in Placer County collapsed in 1971 apparently due to a combination of heat exhaustion and low levels of virus infection. Other defoliators, spiders, and several predatory insect species were collected from the foliage samples simultaneously with the tussock moth during larval sampling. Twelve species of "free living" spiders which could be capable of preying on the defoliator complex of white fir were collected. Parasitoids and predators appear to be potentially important biotic factors at low to moderate host population levels. This is the first recorded case where an agent other than the nucleopolyhedrosis virus has been responsible for the collapse of a Douglas-fir tussock moth population.

Type
Articles
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 109 , Issue 5 , May 1977 , pp. 727 - 746
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1977

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