Abstract:

An investigation on insect natural enemies of gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar L. (Lepidoptera:Lymantridae) was carried out in 1996 and 1997. Totally 23 species of the natural enemies were gotten, of which 17 species are parasitoids and 6 predators. Two egg parasitoid species made a parasitism of 5.2%~10.9% and Ooencyrtus kuvanae (Howard) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) was the dominant species. The dominant larval parasitoid species were Meteorus pulchricornis, Glyptapanteles liparidis, Apanteles sp. (Hymenoptera:Braconidae), Phobocampe lymantriae, Casinaria nigripes (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), The larval parasitoids could parasitize the pest with an average parasitism of 9.55% and kill them later. The pupal parasitoids had a parasitism of 19.08%, these contain the 5 larval pupal parasitoids of tachinidae (Diptera): Exorista rossica, E.japonica, parasetlgena silvestris, Compsilure concinnata, Palexorista laconspicua and the real pupal parasitoids: Coccygomimus disparis, Theronia atalantae gestator (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), Brachymeria lasus (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae) and Tetrastichus sp. (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae). Altogether, about 30.1% of the gypsy moth individuals were killed by natural enemies from egg to pupal stage. These data showed that the natural enemies played an important role in controlling the population of gypsy moth.

Key words: Lymantria dispar, Parasitoids, Predators, Natural control