Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Gavin.collins (talk | contribs) at 12:54, 25 April 2007 (Removal of paragraphs that do not citeg a reputable source for their arguments). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Arthropods Unassessed

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Arthropods, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of arthropods on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ArthropodsWikipedia:WikiProject ArthropodsTemplate:WikiProject ArthropodsArthropods ??? This article has not yet received a rating on Misplaced Pages's content assessment scale. ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Biological pest control

I withdrawn the following text from this article since it based on my own observations, and acknowledge that because this is not corroborated by any scientific study, it should be replaced by a reputable source regarding the physiology of horse chesnut leaf miner:

"Like other moths of the Lepidoptera order, its wings are covered by minute, powdery scales that are slightly sticky to the touch. The scales are shed by the moth on contact, and can accumulate as a sticky powder like coating on the leaves and leaf stems on which it resides.

This coating acts as a natural barrier that protects the moth from attack by common predators such as spiders, whose webs are rendered ineffectual by sticky powder like scales. As the coating accumulates during periods of dry weather, it may also make the moth unpalatable to other predators, such as birds, enabling the population of Horse-chestnut leaf miner an to grow unchecked by Biological pest control".

Although other contributors to this article have provided suggestions why this leaf miner has spread so quickly (e.g. its short reproductive cycle, climatic change), I have not seen any explanation as to why it is not subject to Biological pest control. Intuitively, the increase in the population of the leaf miner could be expected to give rise to a corresponding increase in predators, until such time equilibrium between leaf miner and predator populations could be reached.

Clearly there is a gap in this article that should be addressed, and I hope that the conclusions drawn from my observations, even if what I have written turns out to be incorrect, start to address the issue of why the moth's physiology make it resistent to Biological pest control; I for one would be interested in finding out more. Gavin Collins 11:16, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

• WikiProject templates with unknown parameters
• Unassessed Arthropods articles
• Unknown-importance Arthropods articles
• WikiProject Arthropods articles