Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T04:23:18.047Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Relationship of Form and Function of Minute Characters of Lepidopterous Larvae, and its Importance in Life-History Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

Margaret Rae MacKay
Affiliation:
Entomology Research Institute, Research Branch, Canada Department of Agriculture, Ottawa

Abstract

The information to be obtained from thorough life-history studies is an extremely useful tool, perhaps especially so when ecology is being emphasized, as it is to-day, by the life-table and other mathematical approaches to the study of population processes. This information is desired by workers in many fields of entomology – by the biological and chemical control experts, the biomathematicians, the theorists and even the taxonomists. However, much of the knowledge that these workers require, for instance the fine distinctions of behaviour and environment, has been overlooked in most life-history studies, and I strongly suspect that one of the weaknesses of studies of this nature has been the failure to analyse the mode of living of an insect (or, in the case of Lepidoptera, of the immature forms) in relation to the anatomy on one hand and environmental circumstances on the other. To look for these relationships, I believe that one requires (a) the ability and perseverance to perceive detail as minute as that required for a taxonomic study, and (b) a considerable knowledge of the taxonomic detail that is to be obtained from basic morphological studies. Therefore, in this paper, attention is drawn to pertinent structural characters of lepidopterous larvae and their probable connection with the behaviour and microhabitats of the larvae, in the hope that some guidance may be offered to future students of life-histories, at least in Lepidoptera.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1964

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beirne, B. P. 1963. Ecology in biological control. Mem. ent. Soc. Can. 32: 710.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crumb, S. E. 1929. Tobacco cutworms. Tech. Bull. U.S. Dep. Agric. 88, 179 pp.Google Scholar
Crumb, S. E. 1956. The larvae of the Phalaenidae. Tech. Bull. U.S. Dep. Agric. 1135, 356 pp.Google Scholar
Cumming, M. E. P. 1954. Notes on the spruce needle miner, Taniva albolineana Kft. (Olethreutidae: Lepidoptera). Canad. Ent. 86: 457460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, D. C. 1963. Immature stages of four Nearctic Notodontidae (Lepidoptera). Canad. Ent. 95: 946953.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finlayson, Thelma. 1960a. Taxonomy of cocoons and puparia, and their contents, of Canadian parasites of Neodiprion sertifer (Geoff.) (Hymenoptera: Diprionidae). Canad. Ent. 92: 2047.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finlayson, Thelma. 1960b. Taxonomy of cocoons and puparia, and their contents, of Canadian parasites of Diprion hercyniae (Htg.) (Hymenoptera: Diprionidae). Canad. Ent. 92: 922941.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finlayson, Thelma. 1962. Taxonomy of cocoons and puparia, and their contents, of Canadian parasites of Diprion similis (Htg.) (Hymenoptera: Diprionidae). Canad. Ent. 94: 271282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finlayson, Thelma. 1963. Taxonomy of cocoons and puparia, and their contents, of Canadian parasites of some native Diprionidae (Hymenoptera). Canad. Ent. 95: 475507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, T. N. Some needle-mining Lepidoptera of conifers other than pine in North America. Mem. ent. Soc. Canada (in press).Google Scholar
Gerasimov, A. M. 1952. Fauna U.S.S.R. Lepidoptera. Vol. 1, No. 2, I. Larvae. Zool. Inst. Acad. Nauk U.S.S.R. (N.S.) 56, 338 pp.Google Scholar
Hinton, H. E. 1946. On the homology and nomenclature of the setae of lepidopterous larvae, with some notes on the phylogeny of the Lepidoptera. Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond. 97: 137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinton, H. E. 1947. On the reduction of functional spiracles in the aquatic larvae of the Holometabola, with notes on the moulting process of spiracles. Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond. 98: 449473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinton, H. E. 1955. On the structure, function, and distribution of the prolegs of the Panorpoidea, with a criticism of the Berlese-Imms Theory. Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond. 106: 455556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinton, H. E. 1956. The larvae of the species of Tineidae of economic importance. Bull. ent. Res. 47: 251346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holling, C. S. 1964. The analysis of complex population processes. Canad. Ent. 96: 332344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, H. G. 1963. Larval habitats, development, and parasites of some Tabanidae (Diptera) in southern Ontario. Canad. Ent. 95: 12231232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKay, M. R. 1951. Descriptions of larvae of several species of the genus Zale (Lepidoptera: Phalaenidae). Canad. Ent. 83: 245261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKay, M. R. 1954. The egg and larva of Coryphista meadi atlantica Munroe (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). Canad. Ent. 86: 284288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKay, M. R. 1959. Larvae of the North American Olethreutidae (Lepidoptera). Canad. Ent. Suppl. 10, 338 pp.Google Scholar
MacKay, M. R. 1962. Larvae of the North American Tortricinae (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). Canad. Ent. Suppl. 28, 182 pp.Google Scholar
MacKay, M. R. 1963. Evolution and adaptation of larval characters in the Tortricidae. Canad. Ent. 95: 13211344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKay, M. R., and Rockburne, E. W.. 1958. Notes on life-history and larval description of Apamea apamiformis (Guenée), a pest of wild rice (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Canad. Ent. 90: 579582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, J. L. 1959. The bionomics of the pine bud moth, Exoteleia dodocella L. (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), in Ontario. Canad. Ent. 91: 514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGuffin, W. C. 1958. Larvae of the Nearctic Larentiinae (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). Canad. Ent. Suppl. 8, 104 pp.Google Scholar
Miller, E. M., and Altmann, S. A.. 1958. Ecological observations on the Virginia pitch nodule moth, Petrova wenzeli (Kearfott), including a note on its nomenclature (Lepidoptera, Olethreutidae). Ohio J. Sci. 58: 273281.Google Scholar
Needham, J. G., Frost, S. W., and Tothill, B. H.. 1928. Leaf-mining insects. Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, Maryland.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, A. 1948. Larvae of insects. Part I. Edwards Brothers, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Peterson, A. 1951. Larvae of insects. Part II. Edwards Brothers, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Ripley, L. B. 1923. The external morphology and postembryology of noctuid larvae. Illinois biol. Monogr. 8: 1102.Google Scholar
Tripp, H. A. 1954. Descriptions and habits of the spruce seedworm, Laspeyresia youngana (Kft.) (Lepidoptera: Olethreutidae). Canad. Ent. 86: 385402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watt, K. E. F. 1963. Mem. ent. Soc. Can. 32: pp. 100101.Google Scholar