Site susceptibility, population development and dispersal of the pine beauty moth in a lodgepole pine forest in northern Scotland.
Abstract
Data for Panolis flammea in a Pinus contorta forest for 1977-84 did not support the hypothesis that part of the forest was intrinsically more susceptible than the rest to attack (population growth was not significantly greater in the small part of the forest defoliated by larvae in 1984; instead, the outbreak centred on an area where numbers had been greatest 1 yr after insecticidal control in 1979). Significant differences in adult emergence and egg laying were observed at ten sampling locations throughout the forest in 1985. The number of eggs laid per tree was significantly negatively correlated with degree of defoliation by larvae in the previous year. Egg counts suggested that moths in defoliated areas were less fecund or laid a large proportion of their eggs outside the defoliated area.