The performance of the pine beauty moth on water-stressed lodgepole pine plants: a laboratory experiment

A laboratory experiment was done to see whether artificially induced waterlogging, or water shortage in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) would affect the egg laying preference, larval survival and larval growth of Panolis flammea. Female moths showed no egg laying preference between unstressed and stressed plants. Larval survival was greater on unstressed (85%) than on stressed (32%) plants, and the weight of larvae reared on unstressed plants was significantly greater than those reared on stressed plants. These results imply that outbreaks of the pine beauty moth on trees growing in deep unflushed peat are not caused by a stress-induced improvement in the nutritional quality of the host-plant.