Research Information System
Silva Balcanica, no.8, pp.66-78, 2007 (Scopus)
Between 10 February and 18 March 2000,83 egg-batches of pine processionary moth were collected from five sites located in Turkey. Two of them are situated at a relatively high altitude: Isparta at 1150 m, and Atabey at 1050 m, where the host plant is Pinus nigra Arn. The remaining three sites (Iskenderun, Bodrum and Köycegiz) are at an altitude of from 100 to 300 m and the host plant is Pinus brutia Ten. In biotopes under investigation, the egg productivity of pine processionary moth varies within a broad range - from 154.5 to 201. The relative share of hatched caterpillars is between 56.3% and 85 %. From 3.3 to 8.8 % is the reduction of the species by factors other than parasitoids and predators. Four parasitoids on the eggs of pine processionary moth have been established: Ooecyrtus pityocampae (Mercet), Baryscapns servadeii (Domm.), Tricbogramma embryopbagum I Itg. and Pedioblnus sp., the parasitised eggs, in various sites, being between 7.5 and 37.5 %. Out of the total of 3193 eggs parasitized in the five samples, 3001 were parasitised by O. pityocampae and B. servadeii, which constitutes 94 %. With O. pityocampae, the male individual emerged after the collection date are 0.4 %, and with B. servadeii - 0.3 %. In the sites of relatively high altitude, the ratio between the number of O. pityocampae and B. servdeii is from 90.1 to 99.2, compared to 9.9 to 0.8, and at the low altitude no dependence was established. In the sites Isparta, Atabey and Bodrum, the emergence of O, pityocampae practically ends in autumn, in the remaining two sites the mass emergence of parasitoid is after hibernation. With B. servadeii, the mass emergence is after hibernation. B. servadeii and O. pityocampae show some preference for the edges of batches, but batch parts unaffected by parasitoids were not found, and the differences in the percentage of parasitisation in the individual segments are not big. The emergence openings of O. pityocampae and B. servadeii are primarily in the top part of pine processionary moth eggs, which proves their high adaptability to their host.