EFFECTS OF MATERNAL NUTRITION AND EGG PROVISIONING ON PARAMETERS OF LARVAL HATCH, SURVIVAL AND DISPERSAL IN THE GYPSY-MOTH, LYMANTRIA-DISPAR L

North American gypsy moths disperse as newly hatched larvae on wind cu rrents in a behavior called ballooning. Because ballooning occurs befo re neonates begin to feed, resources used in dispersal are limited to those carried over from the egg. We show that nutritional experience o f the maternal parent can influence the tendency of offspring to dispe rse, and that resource provisioning of eggs by the maternal parent aff ects the duration of the window for dispersal. Offspring of females fr om defoliated sites had a lower tendency to balloon in a wind tunnel t han larvae from females which had not experienced nutritional stress a ssociated with host defoliation. The number of eggs in an egg mass, a reflection of the maternal parent's nutritional experience, also contr ibuted to the predictive model for dispersal that included defoliation level. Egg weight and the levels of two yolk proteins, vitellin (Vt) and glycine-rich protein (CRP), however, had no influence on the propo rtion of ballooning larvae. The length of survival without food, and t hus the maximum period of time for dispersal, was correlated with leve ls of Vt and GRP, but not with egg weight. The level of defoliation at the site from which the maternal parent was collected was not related to the longevity of offspring, nor did it have a significant effect o n the levels of Vt, GRP or egg weight. Levels of hemo-lymph proteins a rylphorin and vitellogenin in the maternal parent during the prepupal stage had no influence on levels of yolk proteins, larval longevity, o r tendency to balloon.