Eastern Tent Caterpillar(Insecta, Lepidoptera)

1993 ◽  
Vol 71 (8) ◽  
pp. 1511-1515 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. D. Fitzgerald ◽  
F. X. Webster

Behavioral assays show that the steroid 5β-cholestan-3-one, isolated from the abdomen of the larva of the forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria), constitutes the chemical basis of trail following in this insect. Caterpillars follow artificial trails prepared from solvent dilutions of the compound at rates as low as 10−11 g∙mm−11 of trail, though the true threshold sensitivity is likely to be one or two orders of magnitude lower than this. Fourth-instar caterpillars store an average of 58 ng of the pheromone. Field and laboratory studies indicate that the compound is fully competitive with their authentic trails. The caterpillars are highly sensitive to differences in the concentration of the pheromone, preferring stronger trails to weaker trails. The caterpillars also respond to 5β-cholestane-3,24-dione, a chemical not found in M. disstria but known to be a component of the trail pheromone of the eastern tent caterpillar, Malacosoma americanum.


2003 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Betty Kreuger ◽  
Daniel A. Potter

We tested the hypothesis that early-season defoliation of flowering crabapple, Malus sp., by eastern tent caterpillars, Malacosoma americanum F., induces localized or systemic resistance to Japanese beetles, Popillia japonica Newman, feeding on the same trees in late June. ‘Candymint Sargent’ crabapple trees were inoculated with M. americanum egg masses, resulting in extensive defoliation during March and April. Second flush leaves of defoliated trees were smaller and thinner than those of control trees. In laboratory feeding assays with non-damaged foliage, beetles generally preferred fully expanded leaves over partially expanded ones, regardless of whether or not the source tree had been defoliated. Detached first flush leaves with caterpillar damage were fed upon less than comparable non-damaged leaves, suggesting that early-season wounding causes some within-leaf reduction in palatability to P. japonica. Other assays with detached first- and second-flush leaves, however, indicated absence of induced, systemic resistance. Previously-defoliated and control trees sustained comparable damage from natural beetle populations in the field. Our results suggest that defoliation of Malus sp. by tent caterpillars in early spring is unlikely to reduce feeding damage by Japanese beetles later in the same growing season.


1979 ◽  
Vol 111 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Trial ◽  
J. B. Dimond

AbstractEmodin, a mixture of anthraquinones, occurs in the Rhamnaceae and functions as a deterrent to foliage-feeding insects. There was little attack on foliage of Rhamnus alnifolia in wild stands compared with associated species of woody plants. Anthraquinones extracted from foliage of R. alnifolia were similar to purchased emodin in thin-layer chromatographic and infra-red spectroscopic analyses. Quantities of emodin in foliage samples were high in May, declining to low levels in August. Leaf powders, leaf extracts, and purchased emodin all showed feeding deterrent activity when mixed with artificial diets and assayed with gypsy moth larvae. Purchased emodin showed similar activity when sprayed on foliage of small cherry trees and assayed with eastern tent caterpillar larvae.


1963 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. P. Jaques

The effect of five common orchard fungicides, captan, dodine, dichlone, glyodin, and a mercuric acetate eradicant, on the activity of a wettable powder preparation of spores of Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner was studied in the laboratory, orchard, and field, using pests of apple and cabbage as test insects. Glyodin was the only one of the fungicides tested in the laboratory that significantly reduced the activity of the spores against larvae of the eastern tent caterpillar, Malacosoma americanum (Fabricius), and the winter moth, Operophthera brumata (Linnaeus). In the orchard and field tests the combining of glyodin or dodine with sprays of the spores reduced mortality of larvae of the winter moth, the imported cabbageworm, Pieris rapae (Linnaeus), and the diamondback moth, Plutella maculipennis (Curtis).


2004 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. K. Rieske

Larval growth and survival of the eastern tent caterpillar, Malacosoma americana F., was assessed on its preferred host, black cherry (Prunus serotina Ehrhart), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.), hackberry (Celtis occidentalis L.), white oak (Quercus alba L.), and white pine (Pinus strobus L.), and on the herbaceous biennial poison hemlock (Conium maculatum L.). Larvae grew largest and had the greatest pupation and survival rates when fed black cherry and white oak. They did not grow well on black locust or white pine, but survival rates were relatively high, suggesting that both plant species could potentially serve to sustain tent caterpillar populations. Growth and survival was so low on hackberry and poison hemlock that they pose little chance of sustaining outbreaking caterpillar populations.


1982 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. D. Fitzgerald ◽  
Janice S. Edgerly

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