Distinguishing eastern North American forest moth pests by wing-scale ultrastructure: potential applications in paleoecology
The use of fossil moth wing scales has recently been introduced as a new method to reconstruct population histories of lepidopterans and provide a proxy for insect disturbance. We investigated the potential for using wing-scale ultrastructure to distinguish between the five most common outbreak spec...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Canadian Science Publishing
2019-09-01
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| Series: | FACETS |
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| Online Access: | https://www.facetsjournal.com/doi/10.1139/facets-2018-0051 |
| _version_ | 1818361018274807808 |
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| author | Kristen J. Milbury Les C. Cwynar Sara Edwards |
| author_facet | Kristen J. Milbury Les C. Cwynar Sara Edwards |
| author_sort | Kristen J. Milbury |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The use of fossil moth wing scales has recently been introduced as a new method to reconstruct population histories of lepidopterans and provide a proxy for insect disturbance. We investigated the potential for using wing-scale ultrastructure to distinguish between the five most common outbreak species of moth pests in eastern North America: spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana Clemens), hemlock looper (Lambdina fiscellaria Guenée), forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria Hübner), blackheaded budworm (Acleris variana Fernie), and jack pine budworm (Choristoneura pinus Freeman). Using scanning electron images of scales, we made qualitative and quantitative comparisons of morphological traits at the ultrastructural level. We found that hemlock looper and eastern blackheaded budworm scales could be categorically separated from each other and from the three other species. We developed a quadratic discriminant function using measurements of ultrastructure traits that distinguishes scales of the three remaining species with an overall accuracy of 66%. We found that forest tent caterpillar could be well separated based on these traits, but we were less confident in distinguishing the closely related jack pine and spruce budworm. Our method offers potential advantages in scale identification for future studies in paleoecology, while providing the additional advantage of not requiring intact, unfolded, and undamaged scales. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T21:10:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-876454587d304504bd5d4d2b64c62853 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2371-1671 2371-1671 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T21:10:01Z |
| publishDate | 2019-09-01 |
| publisher | Canadian Science Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | FACETS |
| spelling | doaj.art-876454587d304504bd5d4d2b64c628532022-12-21T23:31:23ZengCanadian Science PublishingFACETS2371-16712371-16712019-09-01449350610.1139/facets-2018-0051Distinguishing eastern North American forest moth pests by wing-scale ultrastructure: potential applications in paleoecologyKristen J. Milbury0Les C. Cwynar1Sara Edwards2Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, 10 Bailey Drive, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3, CanadaDepartment of Biology, University of New Brunswick, 10 Bailey Drive, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3, CanadaPopulation Ecology Group, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB E3B 6C2, Canada; Forest Protection Limited, Fredericton International Airport, 2502 Route 102 Highway, Lincoln, NB E3B 7E6, CanadaThe use of fossil moth wing scales has recently been introduced as a new method to reconstruct population histories of lepidopterans and provide a proxy for insect disturbance. We investigated the potential for using wing-scale ultrastructure to distinguish between the five most common outbreak species of moth pests in eastern North America: spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana Clemens), hemlock looper (Lambdina fiscellaria Guenée), forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria Hübner), blackheaded budworm (Acleris variana Fernie), and jack pine budworm (Choristoneura pinus Freeman). Using scanning electron images of scales, we made qualitative and quantitative comparisons of morphological traits at the ultrastructural level. We found that hemlock looper and eastern blackheaded budworm scales could be categorically separated from each other and from the three other species. We developed a quadratic discriminant function using measurements of ultrastructure traits that distinguishes scales of the three remaining species with an overall accuracy of 66%. We found that forest tent caterpillar could be well separated based on these traits, but we were less confident in distinguishing the closely related jack pine and spruce budworm. Our method offers potential advantages in scale identification for future studies in paleoecology, while providing the additional advantage of not requiring intact, unfolded, and undamaged scales.https://www.facetsjournal.com/doi/10.1139/facets-2018-0051spruce budwormmoth scalesscale ultrastructureSEMinsect outbreaksinsect disturbance |
| spellingShingle | Kristen J. Milbury Les C. Cwynar Sara Edwards Distinguishing eastern North American forest moth pests by wing-scale ultrastructure: potential applications in paleoecology FACETS spruce budworm moth scales scale ultrastructure SEM insect outbreaks insect disturbance |
| title | Distinguishing eastern North American forest moth pests by wing-scale ultrastructure: potential applications in paleoecology |
| title_full | Distinguishing eastern North American forest moth pests by wing-scale ultrastructure: potential applications in paleoecology |
| title_fullStr | Distinguishing eastern North American forest moth pests by wing-scale ultrastructure: potential applications in paleoecology |
| title_full_unstemmed | Distinguishing eastern North American forest moth pests by wing-scale ultrastructure: potential applications in paleoecology |
| title_short | Distinguishing eastern North American forest moth pests by wing-scale ultrastructure: potential applications in paleoecology |
| title_sort | distinguishing eastern north american forest moth pests by wing scale ultrastructure potential applications in paleoecology |
| topic | spruce budworm moth scales scale ultrastructure SEM insect outbreaks insect disturbance |
| url | https://www.facetsjournal.com/doi/10.1139/facets-2018-0051 |
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