Parasifoids of the Nantucket Pine Tip Moth (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in the Coastal Plain of Georgia

Abstract

Parasitism of the Nantucket pine tip moth, Rhyacionia frustrana (Comstock), was studied for four consecutive generations in the Georgia coastal plain by collecting tip moth-infested shoots and rearing adult moths and parasitoids. Nineteen species of parasitoids were collected. Based on numbers of emerging adults, the overall tip moth parasitism rate was 44.8%. Lixophaga mediocris Aid rich, Eurytoma pini Bugbee, and Hyssopus rhyacioniae Gahan were the most abundant parasitoids, accounting for 36.3%, 25.4%, and 11.7% of parasitism, respectively. Parasitism was highest in the summer, 1996, and spring, 1997, generations, and lowest in the 1996–97 overwintering generation. Emergence curves of L. mediocris and Hy. rhyacioniae overlapped that of R. frustrana considerably. Examination of unemerged tip moth pupae and parasitoid puparia indicated that E. pini was predominately hyperparasitic. The parasitoid complex in the coastal plain was different from that in the Georgia Piedmont Plateau and from other published reports of tip moth natural enemies.