气象因子对落叶松毛虫种群数量的影响

为探究落叶松毛虫种群数量与气象因子的关系,利用大兴安岭地区落叶松毛虫发生年度监测数据与气象数据构建线性回归模型,以赤池信息量准则为评价依据,通过逐步回归的方式从拟合优度和复杂度两方面权衡选取最优模型.采用相对权重法确定影响落叶松毛虫种群数量的关键气象因子,并量化了关键气象因子对松毛虫种群数量的影响.结果表明: 低龄幼虫期和繁殖期是影响落叶松毛虫种群数量的关键时期,而中龄幼虫期和高龄幼虫期的影响较弱; 低龄幼虫期日相对湿度均值、低龄幼虫越冬期日均温小于-22 ℃积温和繁殖期降水总量是影响落叶松毛虫种群数量的关键气象因子; 低龄幼虫期日相对湿度均值和繁殖期降水总量的标准差每增加1倍,落叶松毛虫种群数量的标准差分别减少62%和35%;低龄幼虫越冬期日均温小于-22 ℃积温的标准差每增加1倍,落叶松毛虫种群数量的标准差增加40%.表明全球气候变暖趋势下落叶松毛虫的爆发特点等可能呈现出新的形式,建立长期的种群数量监测体系尤为重要.     

西藏高原冬虫夏草资源适宜性区划分析

冬虫夏草是分布在西藏高原高寒草甸中稀缺的可再生生物资源,具有很高的药用价值和经济价值,然而资源的数量、空间分布格局及分布适宜度尚不清晰。根据西藏高原冬虫夏草产区生态环境条件,以海拔高度、植被类型、土壤类型、年平均降水量、年平均气温为区划主要指标,利用GIS空间分析方法对西藏高原冬虫夏草生长区进行适宜性综合区划。结果表明:那曲地区的比如县、索县,昌都市的边坝县、丁青县、类乌齐县、江达县、洛隆县、察雅县、贡觉县部分产区处在适宜区;那曲地区的那曲县、嘉黎县、巴青县、聂荣县,拉萨市的当雄县及其他产区处在次适宜区;日喀则市的大部分地区、林芝市和山南市的低海拔地区为不适宜区。在出产冬虫夏草的地区(市)中,那曲地区、昌都市分布面积占当地产冬虫夏草县域国土面积的52.1%—59.3%,山南市、日喀则市、拉萨市和林芝市分布面积占当地产冬虫夏草县域国土面积的13.7%—26.1%,整个西藏高原产区的冬虫夏草分布面积平均占当地产冬虫夏草县域国土面积的34.5%。综合区划图能比较真实的反映西藏高原冬虫夏草空间分布格局,区划结果与采挖地乡镇调查结果符合程度高,与冬虫夏草单位草原面积统计产量分布较为一致。这一研究方法可为以后冬虫夏草资源调查提供参考,为冬虫夏草资源评估及区划等相关研究提供方法支持。     

竹林金针虫对绿僵菌及其代谢产物的行为反应

绿僵菌(Metarhizium spp.)是地下害虫重要的生防真菌,为了明确绿僵菌对金针虫的驱避作用,本文以平沙绿僵菌WP08菌株为研究对象,通过Y型管等嗅觉生测方法测定了筛胸梳爪叩甲幼虫对绿僵菌分生孢子、非挥发物和挥发性物的行为反应。结果表明:金针虫的选择行为与土壤中平沙绿僵菌分生孢子浓度密切相关,当土壤中绿僵菌孢子浓度达到5×10~8个·g~(-1)干土时,绿僵菌对金针虫表现出极显著的驱避作用(P0.001),随着浓度的降低,驱避作用减弱,当浓度达到5×10~6个·g~(-1)干土时,驱避作用消失;平沙绿僵菌孢子发酵液(浓度为1×10~8个·mL~(-1))对金针虫驱避作用极显著(P0.001),而挥发物对金针虫驱避作用不明显(P0.05)。本研究结果为揭示绿僵菌驱虫的内在机制提供了重要的基础信息。     

球孢白僵菌胞外蛋白酶及其与毒力关系的研究

用明胶琼脂平板法和双层纸碟法均可简便快速地测定球孢白僵菌的胞外蛋白酶产生水平,其产酶量与其对马尾松毛虫的毒力呈明显的线性关系。     

蛹虫草超氧化物歧化酶分离纯化及稳定性的研究

以蛹虫草为材料,经过硫酸铵盐析、Sephedex G-75柱层析和DEAE-52柱层析,得到纯化的超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）,经聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳显示单一区带,此酶比活力为17855．73u／mg,纯化倍数为53．7,回收率为21．8％。同时鉴于SOD在溶液中容易失活,无法长期保存,该文研究了不同浓度的糖类及不同浓度的有机酸类对SOD活力的影响,发现糖类对SOD活力影响不明显,有机酸均使SOD活力下降,但随着酸浓度的增加,SOD活力下降的程度也减轻。     

Thermal ecology and behaviour of the nomadic social forager Malacosoma disstria

The present study examines whether the nomadic social caterpillar Malacosoma disstria Hübner (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) can thermoregulate despite the lack of a tent, and evaluates the role of thermoregulation in directing the colony's behaviour. The presence of a radiant heat and light source (i.e. a lamp in the laboratory experiments and the sun in the field observations) enables caterpillar colonies to increase body temperature by basking (remaining still under a heat source) and this is only effective when caterpillars cluster in groups. Body temperatures achieved when basking in a group coincide with the temperatures at which the development rate is maximal for this species. Indeed, in the laboratory experiments, the presence of a lamp results in higher growth rates, confirming that thermoregulation is an advantage to group living. When a radiant heat/light source is provided at a distance from the food in the laboratory, caterpillars behave to maximize thermal gains: colonies move away from the food to bivouac (i.e. group together and remain still on a silk mat) under the lamp, spend more time on the bivouac and cluster in a more cohesive group. Thermal needs thus influence habitat selection and colony aggregation. Malacosoma disstria relies on developing rapidly, despite low seasonal temperatures, aiming to benefit from springtime high food quality and low predation rates; however, unlike others in its genus, it does not build a tent but instead exhibits collective nomadic foraging (i.e. the whole colony moves together between temporary resting and feeding sites). In this species, collective thermoregulatory behaviour is not only possible and advantageous, but also drives much of the colony's behaviour, in large part dictating the temporal and spatial patterns of movement. These findings suggest that thermoregulation may be an important selection pressure keeping colonies together.     

Does group feeding by toxic prey confer a defensive benefit? Aristolochic acid content,group size and survival of first‐instar pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor L.) larvae

1. Aggregative feeding of larvae is widespread in the Lepidoptera, and many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the adaptive significance of this trait. Group feeding occurs disproportionately more in species with aposematic, chemically defended larvae compared with species with cryptic, non‐chemically defended larvae, consistent with the hypothesis that group feeding provides an enhanced aposematic signal to natural enemies. Most species characterised as having chemically defended larvae are cryptic during the first instar, when they are most highly aggregated and most vulnerable to predation. 2. The benefits of group feeding in terms of decreased predation were explored for first‐instar larvae of the pipevine swallowtail, Battus philenor, a species that sequesters aristolochic acids from its Aristolochia host plant and exhibits aposematism in later instars and as adults. We found that groups of larvae with experimentally enhanced aristolochic acid content had significantly lower survivorship due to predation both in the field and in laboratory experiments compared with groups of larvae without enhanced chemical defence. 3. A laboratory experiment found that aristolochic acid does not deter the generalist predator Hippodamia convergens. 4. No evidence was found that was consistent with the hypothesis that group feeding and increased sequestered chemical defence interact to decrease rates of larval mortality in non‐aposematic, first‐instar larvae. Future research on chemical defence, aposematism, and aggregative feeding should continue to appreciate that particular chemical defences and feeding behaviours are not universally effective against all natural enemies.     

Historical distribution of the oak processionary moth Thaumetopoea processionea in Europe suggests recolonization instead of expansion

• 1 The oak processionary moth Thaumetopoea processionea (Notodontidae) is presently distributed in almost all European countries and in part of the Middle East. In the North, its range limit passes through the Netherlands and Germany, and the southern part of Poland and Ukraine. In the South, the species is present in all the countries located on the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, in Anatolia, and in the mountains surrounding the Dead Sea Transform.
• 2 Using information from museum and personal collections, the available literature and other relevant datasets, we show that the species was already largely distributed throughout Europe before 1920. The available data do not provide any evidence of any long‐term latitudinal shift of the species betwen 1750 and 2010.
• 3 In the northernmost part of its range, the population dynamics of the species is characterized by important fluctuations. We studied their pattern in Belgium, the Netherlands and part of Germany, after the apparent regional disappearance of the species during the first half of the 20th Century. The data suggest a continuous extent of the apparent distribution of the insect between 1970 and 2009, at a rate of approximately 7.5 km per year.
• 4 To explain the present distribution of the species, we discuss possible improvements of environmental conditions that could have triggered local population increases and favoured dispersal to adjacent areas. In addition, human activity, including the commercial movements of infested nursery trees, was recently suspected to be another source of spread over geographical barriers.

     

Aerial dispersal and host plant selection by neonate Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis (Lepidoptera: Psychidae)

Abstract.  1. Neonate evergreen bagworms, Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis (Haworth) (Lepidoptera: Psychidae), disperse by dropping on a strand of silk, termed silking , and ballooning on the wind. Larvae construct silken bags with fragments of plant foliage. This species is highly polyphagous, feeding on more than 125 species of woody plants of 45 families. The larvae commonly infests juniper ( Juniperus spp.) and arborvitae ( Thuja spp.), but rarely feed on deciduous hosts such as maples. The hypothesis is proposed that polyphagy in T. ephemeraeformis is maintained by variation among larvae in dispersal behaviour, and time constraints on the opportunity to disperse, but patterns of host species preference result from a predisposition for larvae to settle on arborvitae and juniper but disperse from other hosts.
2. Consistent with that hypothesis, laboratory experiments revealed: (a) starved larvae varied in their tendency to disperse from paper leaf models; (b) starved larvae readily silked only during their first day; (c) larvae became increasingly sedentary the longer they were exposed to plant foliage; (d) when provided with several opportunities to silk, larvae became sedentary after exposure to arborvitae foliage, but repeatedly silked after exposure to maple ( Acer species) foliage or paper; and (e) larvae were less inclined to silk from foliage of arborvitae than from maple.
3. Field experiments supported the hypothesis by demonstrating that: (a) neonates tended to disperse from maple leaves while larvae older than 1 day tended to settle and remain; and (b) neonates were less likely to disperse from arborvitae and juniper trees than from maples.