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The Relationship of Form and Function of Minute Characters of Lepidopterous Larvae, and its Importance in Life-History Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

Margaret Rae MacKay
Margaret Rae MacKay
Affiliation:
Entomology Research Institute, Research Branch, Canada Department of Agriculture, Ottawa
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Abstract

The information to be obtained from thorough life-history studies is an extremely useful tool, perhaps especially so when ecology is being emphasized, as it is to-day, by the life-table and other mathematical approaches to the study of population processes. This information is desired by workers in many fields of entomology – by the biological and chemical control experts, the biomathematicians, the theorists and even the taxonomists. However, much of the knowledge that these workers require, for instance the fine distinctions of behaviour and environment, has been overlooked in most life-history studies, and I strongly suspect that one of the weaknesses of studies of this nature has been the failure to analyse the mode of living of an insect (or, in the case of Lepidoptera, of the immature forms) in relation to the anatomy on one hand and environmental circumstances on the other. To look for these relationships, I believe that one requires (a) the ability and perseverance to perceive detail as minute as that required for a taxonomic study, and (b) a considerable knowledge of the taxonomic detail that is to be obtained from basic morphological studies. Therefore, in this paper, attention is drawn to pertinent structural characters of lepidopterous larvae and their probable connection with the behaviour and microhabitats of the larvae, in the hope that some guidance may be offered to future students of life-histories, at least in Lepidoptera.

Type
Articles
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 96 , Issue 7 , July 1964 , pp. 991 - 1004
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1964

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