Forest Landscape Effects on Dispersal of Spruce Budworm Choristoneura fumiferana (Clemens, 1865) (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae) and Forest Tent Caterpillar Malacosoma disstria Hübner, 1820 (Lepidoptera, Lasiocampidae) Female Moths in Alberta, Canada

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Movement patterns of adult female moths in two major forest insect pest species are shown to be governed by two key factors: population density and host forest cover. As populations rise over the course of an outbreak cycle, defoliation rates rise, and this promotes female movement away from defoliated forest stands, into areas with higher forest cover. This suggests mass dispersal at the peak of an outbreak may be adaptive. ABSTRACT: Leaf-rollers and tent caterpillars, the families Torticidae and Lasiocampidae, represent a significant component of the Lepidoptera, and are well-represented in the forest insect pest literature of North America. Two species in particular—spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.)) and forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria Hbn.)—are the most significant pests of the Pinaceae and Salicacae, respectively, in the boreal forest of Canada, each exhibiting periodic outbreaks of tremendous extent. Dispersal is thought to play a critical role in the triggering of population eruptions and in the synchronization of outbreak cycling, but formal studies of dispersal, in particular studies of long-range dispersal by egg-bearing adult females, are rare. Here, it is shown in two independent studies that adult females of both species tend to disperse away from sparse or defoliated forest, and toward intact or undefoliated forest, suggesting that long-range dispersal during an outbreak peak is adaptive to the species and an important factor in their population dynamics, and hence their evolutionary biology.