Agricultural and Forest Entomology (2005) 7, 307-318
Marc, Kenis, Kathrin Herz, Richard J. West and Mark R. Shaw (2005)
Parasitoid assemblages reared from geometrid defoliators (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) of larch and fir in the alps
Agricultural and Forest Entomology 7 (4), 307-318
Abstract: 1 Geometrid larvae were collected from larch and fir in the Swiss Alps in 1991-94. Eight geometrid species were found in sufficient numbers to rear out parasitoids: Agriopis aurantiaria, Bupalus piniarius, Epirrita autumnata, Eupithecia lariciata, Odontopera bidentata, Lycia isabellae and Semiothisa liturata were collected from larch, and Puengeleria capreolaria was obtained from fir.
2 Parasitoid species belonging to five different guilds and four families were obtained; however, the taxonomic status of some of these is not completely resolved.
3 The parasitoid complex of the larch-feeding species was totally different from that of Tortricidae and Tenthredinidae, which feed on the same host tree. In general, there was little overlap in the parasitoid complexes of the larch geometrids, with the most dominant parasitoid of each species reared from only one host. By contrast, many parasitoid species found during our study are also known to attack the same hosts or closely related hosts on different host tree species in different environments, suggesting that host specificity in geometrid parasitoids is more related to host taxonomy than to host plant or habitat.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Marc Kenis
Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
surveys/distribution/isolation
