SPRING CATERPILLAR FAUNA OF OAK AND BLUEBERRY IN A VIRGINIA DECIDUOUSFOREST

Lepidopteran faunas of oak and blueberry were studied in an oak woodla nd in west central Virginia. Larvae were collected from foliage over 2 -wk period and from beneath burlap bands over a 5-wk period in the spr ing of 1992. One hundred and twenty-nine larvae from 15 families were identified, including 38 noctuids, 32 tortrioids, 21 geometrids, and 2 0 gelechiids. Notable by their absence were Pyralidae, Limacodidae, No todontidae, and several leafinining groups-all common faunal elements of midsummer foliage. Microlepidopterans accounted for 95% of the larv ae from foliage of scarlet/red oak, Erythrobalanus, and 93% of those f rom blueberry, Vaccinium vacillans Torr. Tortricids (52%), and gelechi ids (42%) were numerically the most important families in the foliage collections, Canopy (oak) samples yielded 0.75 larvae per branch tip; subcanopy (oak) samples had 0.46 larvae per branch tip; and understory (blueberry) had 0.13 larvae per branch tip. Macro- and microlepidopte ran numbers dropped off by more than one-half on both canopy (oak) and blueberry samples over the 2-wk sampling period, as the spring foliag e matured and hardened. Larval abundance under burlap was highest on 2 4 May, the first sampling date, and continued dropping thereafter. New host-plant records are reported for species of Geometridae, Noctuidae , Tortricidae, and Gelechiidae.