Spring Caterpillar Fauna of Oak and Blueberry in a Virginia Deciduous Forest

Abstract

Lepidopteran faunas of oak and blueberry were studied in an oak woodland in west central Virginia. Larvae were collected from foliage over a 2-wk period and from beneath burlap bands over a 5-wk period in the spring of 1992. One hundred and twenty-nine larvae from 15 families were identified, including 38 noctuids, 32 tortricids, 21 geometrids, and 20 gelechiids. Notable by their absence were Pyralidae, Limacodidae, Notodontidae, and several leafmining groups-all common faunal elements of midsummer foliage. Microlepidopterans accounted for 95% of the larvae from foliage of scarlet/red oak, Erhythrobalanus, and 93% of those from blueberry, Vaccinium vacillans Torr. Tortricids (52%), and gelechiids (42%) were numerically the most important families in the foliage collections. Canopy (oak) samples yielded 0.75 larvae per branch tip ; subcanopy (oak) samples had 0.46 larvae per branch tip ; and understory (blueberry) had 0.13 larvae per branch tip. Macro- and microlepidopteran numbers dropped off by more than one-half on both canopy (oak) and blueberry samples over the 2-wk sampling period, as the spring foliage matured and hardened. Larval abundance under burlap was highest on 24 May, the first sampling date, and continued dropping thereafter. New host-plant records are reported for species of Geometridae, Noctuidae, Tortricidae, and Gelechiidae.