NEWSLETTER• of the MICHIGAN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY
NEWSLETTER• of the MICHIGAN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY Volume 38, Numbers 4 December, 1993 Impacts ofBt on Non-Target Lepidoptera John W. Peacock, David L. Wagner, and Dale F. Schweitzer USDA Forest Service, Hamden, CT; University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT; and The Nature Conservancy, Port Norris, NT, respectively Introduction gypsy moth in Oregon. Sample et a1. ing attempts bycertain birds. In another (1 993) have likewise reported a signifi study, Bellocq et al. (1992) showed that Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner var. cant reduction inspecies abundance and the use of Btk increased immigration kurstaki (Btk) is one of the pesticides richness in non-target Lepidoptera in rates andcaused d ietary shifts inshrews. most commonly employed against lepi field studies in eastern West Virginia. We report here a summary of our dopteran forest pests. In the eastern U.S., James et al. (1993) haveshown thatBtk is studies aimed at determining the effect where millionsofhectares of deciduous toxic to late, but not early, instar larvae of Btko n non-target Lepidoptera inboth forest have been defoliated by the ''Eu of the beneficial cinnabar moth, Tyria laboratoryand field studies. Laboratory ropean" gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar jacobaeae (L.). bioassays were conducted on larvae in (L.), Btk has been used extenSively to In addition to its direct effects on seven families of native eastern U.S. slow the spread of this pest and to re native Lepidoptera, Btk can indirectly Macrolepidoptera. Field studies were duce defoliation. In 1992 alone, over affect other animals that rely on lepi carried out in Rockbridge County, Vir 300,000 ha were treated with Btk, in dopterous larvae as a primary source of ginia, and were the first to evaluate non cluding gypsy moth suppression activi food.
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