Effect of Size, Stress, and Ligation of Gypsy Moth (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) Larvae on Development of the Tachinid Parasite Compsilura concinnata Meigen (Diptera: Tachinidae)

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Abstract
Compsilura concinnata Meigen develops much faster in large gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.), caterpillars than in small ones. Restricting the food of large caterpillars did not change developmental rates of parasites, but limiting the food available to small hosts lengthened parasite development by increasing the time hosts spent in early stages. If caterpillars were not severely stressed by disease, starvation, or ligation and decapitation, their contained parasites usually emerged at the end of the host's last larval stage, just before pupation. Parasites in severely stressed caterpillars usually emerged from hosts earlier, but only after the host had died. Parasites from caterpillars ligated behind the head or from isolated host abdomens developed faster than those from untreated hosts or caterpillars ligated just anterior to the anus. This suggests that host hormones, possibly juvenile hormone, may influence the development of parasites.

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