Over 400 tree species are primary or secondary hosts of gypsy moth. Interactions between host plant compounds and a viral pathogen such as nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV) in vivo may explain gypsy moth host preference in later instars. Phenolic extracts from pines negatively affected growth of 2nd and 3rd but not 4th instars when incorporated into artificial diet at low concentrations. The aglycone quercetin, and two of its glycosides found in pines, rutin and quercetin-3-O-glucoside, also reduced growth for 2nd and 3rd instars. When 3rd instars were dosed with NPV (60,000 PIBs/larva) and fed pine extract (0.1%) in diet, growth was reduced and mortality increased. Survivorship to adulthood was not significantly higher than control for 3rd instars fed pine extracts over a range of viral doses, nor was it higher for 4th instars dosed at 60,000 PIBs/larvae. The three flavonoids also tended to have negative and synergistic effects on growth and survivorship of 3rd and 4th instars does with 60,000 PIBs/larva. These results suggest that early instars of gypsy moth are quite sensitive to pine phenolics in diet, which may explain why they do not feed on pines in those instars. Gypsy moth is more tolerant of pine phenolics in later instars but these results do not support the hypothesis that gypsy moth later instars which feed on plant hosts such as pine, gain some protection from infectivity of NPV due to the phenolics present in those hosts.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/9784 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Beninger, Clifford W. |
| Contributors | Picman, Jaroslav, |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 185 p. |
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