Abstract:

The ultrastructures and characteristics of forewing scales in the fall webworm <i>Hyphantria cunea，Nyctemera adversata</i>，<i>Spilarctia subcarnea</i>，<i>Epatolmis caesarea</i>，<i>Spilosoma album</i> and <i>Spilarctia casigneta</i> was observed by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).The lengths and widths of scales and the distances between ridges on scales were compared.The results showed that the cover scales and ground scales of these 6 species moths all belonged to the hollow scale and the type of scale covering belonged to type-2 bilayer scale covering.<i>Spilarctia subcarnea</i> had the largest cover scales and ground scales,<i>Spilosoma album</i> had the shortest cover scales and <i>Nyctemera adversata</i> had the shortest ground scales;<i>Hyphantria cunea</i> had the narrowest cover and ground scales.Cover scales of <i>Hyphantria cunea</i> had the largest distance between ridges;the smallest distance between ridges both on cover and ground scales was in <i>Epatolmis caesarea</i>;the smallest between ridges in the ground scales is in <i>Spilarctia casigneta</i>.There were significant differences in the scales' characteristics and distance between ridges among 6 moth species according to one-way ANOVA.The comparison among the ultrastructure and characteristics of wing scales in the fall webworm and other 5 moth species provided a reliable basis for the research on relationship between moths and bats,also for prevention and control of the fall webworm,although they could not be used alone for species identification.

Key words: tiger moth, <, i>, Hyphantria cunea<, /i>, wing scale, ultrastructure, scanning electron microscopy (SEM)