Juvenile hormone epoxide hydrolase (JHEH) is an important enzyme in the degradation pathways of juvenile hormone (JH) in insects. It converts JH to JH diol and hydrolyses JH acid to JH acid diol. JHEH titers regulate the entire process of insect development. In this study, full length ldjheh cDNA (2101 bp) was cloned from the Asian gypsy moth Lymantria dispar (L.; Lepidoptera: Lymantridae), and...

We examined the effects of fertilization and gypsy moth defoliation of hybrid poplar (Populus ×canadensis Moench ‘Eugenei’) on ectomycorrhizal (ECM) and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization, ECM richness, and ECM composition in the summers of 1997 and 1998. The factorial experiment included two levels of defoliation (defoliated and control) and fertilization (100 kg N·ha–1 and contro...

Bacillus thuringiensis is the most widely applied biological insecticide and is used to manage insects that affect forestry and agriculture and transmit human and animal pathogens. This ubiquitous spore-forming bacterium kills insect larvae largely through the action of insecticidal crystal proteins and is commonly deployed as a direct bacterial spray. Moreover, plants engineered with the cry g...

Despite the pervasiveness of spatial synchrony of population fluctuations in virtually every taxon, it remains difficult to disentangle its underlying mechanisms, such as environmental perturbations and dispersal. We used multiple regression of distance matrices (MRMs) to statistically partition the importance of several factors potentially synchronizing the dynamics of the gypsy moth, an invas...

Beginning in 1992, the Slow The Spread (STS) pilot project was initiated to target gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.) spread rate reduction by controlling populations in the transition zone. The project uses intensive monitoring techniques, with pheromone-baited sticky moth traps, to detect low-level populations and target them for eradication. The primary objective of the pilot project was to ev...

The cell line IPLB-LD-652Y, derived from the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.), is routinely used to study interactions between viruses and insect hosts. Here we report the full genome sequence and biological characteristics of a small RNA virus, designated Lymantria dispar iflavirus 1 (LdIV1), that was discovered to persistently infect IPLB-LD-652Y. LdIV1 belongs to the genus Iflavirus. LdIV1 f...

We present here the first recorded age-specific estimates of the developmental response to temperature in diapausing gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.). The effect of temperature on diapause development in gypsy moth eggs was examined by exposing individual eggs to temperature regimes of 5 degrees C interrupted by a single, brief exposure to an experimental temperature. Exposure to each of six e...

We conducted field experiments in 2002 and 2003 to determine whether the functional response of white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus ) to gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar ) pupae is decelerating (e.g. type 2) or accelerating (e.g. type 3) at low pupal density. In both experiments, live gypsy moth pupae were deployed in June (prior to the appearance of natural pupae) at densities of approximately ...

[1] Dissolved silica concentrations in western Virginia streams showed a significant bias toward declines (p < 0.0001) over the time period from 1988 to 2003. Streams with the greatest declines were those that had the highest mean dissolved silica concentrations, specific to watersheds underlain by basaltic and granitic bedrock. We examined potential geochemical, hydrological, and biological fa...

Few studies have addressed how plant chemical defenses that directly affect herbivores in turn affect consumption patterns of vertebrates at higher trophic levels. We studied how variable foliar chemistry of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) affects the diet preferences of an avian insectivore feeding on an introduced herbivore, the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.). Black-capped chic...