Host specificity ofPareuchaetes insulata (Lep.: Arctiidae), a biological control agent forChromolaena odorata (Compositae)

Abstract

Larvae of the arctiid moth, Pareuchaetes insulata, from Florida fed on the leaves of Chromolaena odorata, a serious composite, alien weed in Natal, South Africa. In starvation test trials using 48 plant species, P. insulata completed its development on C. odorata and Ageratum houstonianum. Subsequent attempts to culture P. insulata on these two plants was only successful on C. odorata. The biology of P. insulata is similar to that of two other well studied Pareuchaetes species namely P. pseudoinsulata and P. aurata aurata. Repeated defoliation of C. odorata by P. insulata could contribute to its control as has been found with P. pseudoinsulata in Guam. Pareuchaetes insulata has been approved for release as a biological control agent of C. odorata in South Africa.

The Life History Traits of the Arctiine MothPareuchaetes insulata, a Biological Control Agent ofChromolaena odoratain South Africa

“…Experiments reported here were conducted to investigate several aspects of the biology of P. insulata to understand the poor performance of moth in the field and to allow comparison with earlier studies on P. pseudoinsulata (Cruttwell 1972;Muniappan et al 1989) and P. aurata aurata (Kluge & Caldwell 1993b). This study compares metrics of the moth's performance such as leaf consumption, development duration, pupal mass, growth rate and longevity between male and females which was not considered by Kluge & Caldwell (1993a) and Dube (2008). A further objective of this study was to investigate survival, fecundity (i.e.…”

“…Information on several aspects of the life history traits of P. insulata might assist in unravelling the reasons for the low population levels in the field and could enable us to gain a thorough knowledge of the behaviour of the erebid moth in its new environment. Furthermore, previous research (Kluge & Caldwell 1993a;Walton & Conlong 2003;Dube 2008) undertaken to document the biology of the moth did not consider differences between female and male traits; hence, this study addresses this lacuna because the development and growth of moths sometimes vary as a function of sex (Thiéry & Moreau 2005;. Experiments reported here were conducted to investigate several aspects of the biology of P. insulata to understand the poor performance of moth in the field and to allow comparison with earlier studies on P. pseudoinsulata (Cruttwell 1972;Muniappan et al 1989) and P. aurata aurata (Kluge & Caldwell 1993b).…”

“…The description of the immature stages and adults of P. insulata is well documented (Cock & Holloway 1982;Kluge & Caldwell 1993a). Adults are medium-sized, golden yellow moths with longitudinal rows of black abdominal spots both dorsally and laterally.…”

Variation in host plant has no effect on the performance and fitness‐related traits of the specialist herbivore Pareuchaetes insulata

“…The biology, host range, and population genetics of P. insulata have been studied (Kluge & Caldwell, 1993;Dube et al, 2014;Uyi et al, 2014a). The main features of the moth's life cycle can be summarised as follows (Uyi et al, 2014a): the golden-yellow adult female lays its pale yellow, spherical eggs in batches of 1-16 on the leaves of C. odorata (usually on the underside).…”

Developmental and reproductive performance of a specialist herbivore depend on seasonality of, and light conditions experienced by, the host plant

“…odorata . The biology of this golden yellow moth is documented in Kluge and Caldwell [ 33 ] and Uyi et al [ 34 ]. Following the release of over 1.9 million individuals of different life stages of P .…”