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Volume 51, Number 1

95

insularis Emmel & Emmel (Nymphalidae). The former is polyphagous, and I collected its larvae on Achillea and Erigeron on Santa Rosa. The butterfly is a specialist on Scrophular-iaceae, and I found the young larvae on Castillela exserta [=Orthocarpus purpurascens], which is a likely host of C. longana.

I thank C. Mack Shaver, Superintendent, for issuing a permit to inventory Lepidoptera in the Channel Islands National Park, and personnel of the Resource Division, whose cooperation facilitated my visit: Tim Coonan, Heide David, CeCe Sellgren, and David Kushner, particularly the last, who assisted with collections. Tom Eichlin provided copies of early records in the Calif. Dept. Food & Agric., Plant Pest Diagnostics Branch, Sacramento (CDFA records); cooperation by curators of the Los Angeles County Museum (LACM) and Santa Barbara Natural History Museum (SBNHM) enabled use of specimens; and Richard Priestaf provided records of Santa Barbara microlepidoptera.

Literature Cited

Keifer, H. 1948. Systematic entomology, pp. 205-209. In Armitage, Ann. Rept. Bureau Entomol. & Plant Quarantine, Calif. Dept. Agric. Bull. 37.

Middlekauff. 1949. The omnivorous leaf tier in California. J. Econ. Entomol. 42:35-36.

Powell, J. A. 1964. Biological and taxonomic studies on tortricine moths, with reference to the species in California. Univ. Calif. Publ. Entomol. 32:1-317.

----------. 1994. Biogeography of Lepidoptera on the California Channel Islands, pp.

449—464. In Halvorson, W. & G. Maender (eds.), The fourth California Island symposium: update on the status of resources. Santa Barbara Mus. Nat. Hist., Santa Barbara, California.

J. A. Powell, Essig Museum of Entomology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.

Received for publication 20 October 1995; revised and accepted 12 March 1996.

Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 51(1), 1997, 95-97

EFFECTS OF GENE-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION ON SILK YIELD IN ANTHERAEA MYLITTA (SATURNIIDAE)

Additional key words: tasar silk moth, absolute silk yield, Terminalia arjuna, stability.

Antheraea mylitta (Drury) is a saturniid moth of considerable commercial value used for production of tasar silk. Because interactions between genotype and environment may exert significant influence over specific life history features (Falconer 1952, Dickerson 1962, Hanson 1964, Breese 1969), it is likely that silk yield and yield contributing traits in different strains of A. mylitta are influenced by seasonal and/or environmental factors (Jolly et al. 1979). In an effort to understand features that may contribute to the maximization of silk production, we conducted rearing experiments to measure the interaction between genotype and environment for silk yield and to screen stable genotypes of A. mylitta for use in breeding programs to enhance silk yield.

We investigated eight diverse genetic strains of A. mylitta: Nagri3, Nagri2, Nagri3, Sukli, Raily, Sukinda, Laris (P), and Palma. The genotype lines were obtained from the germplasm bank of the Central Tasar Research and Training Institute, Ranchi, Bahir, India. We reared the eight genotypes through two generations in July-August and October—November of 1988. The two generations mature under different environmental conditions: the July-August brood occuring during the rainy season, and the October-November brood occuring during the dry season. Larvae were reared on individual plants

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Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society

Table 1. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for silk yield and related parameters in Bom-byx mori as a function of genotype and environment. All parameters in the table are significant at P < 0.01.

of Terminalia arjuna Bedd. (Combretaceae) situated in rows, with each plant separated by at least 2 m. Experimental design of the rearings followed a randomized block strategy during both generations, with three replicates of each genotype, 300 larvae per replication. Absolute silk yield was estimated based on shell weight of all the cocoons harvested from each replication. Gene-environment interaction was calculated following the methodology proposed by Plaisted and Peterson (1959). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was calculated by pooling absolute silk yield of the two seasons.

Table 1 indicates that there were significant differences among genotypes (G), environments (E), and in the gene-environment interaction, suggesting that genotypes interact considerably with environmental conditions to produce different silk yields. Mean absolute silk yield for the two generations and within generation type variance (52VL or stability) are illustrated in Table 2. Mean absolute silk yield ranged from 25.07 g to 147.78 g in the first generation, while that of the second generation ranged from 67.08 g to 259.73 g, illustrating a marked between generation difference. Absolute silk yield was found to be much higher in all genotypes during the second generation, corroborating the findings of Jolly etal. (1979).

As illustrated in Table 2, the genotypes in order of increasing absolute silk yield in the first generation were Palma (25.07 g), Laria (49.49 g), Suldnda (61.46 g), Raily (82.65 g), Nagri, (96.70 g), Sukli (98.98 g), Nagri2 (100.64 g), and Nagri3 (147.78 g). In the second generation, absolute silk yield (from least to greatest) was achieved by Laria, Nagri3, Palma, Sukinda, Raily, Sukli, Nagri2, and Nagri,.

The estimate of genotype x generation variance exhibited a wide range from 792.96 to 4280.26 (Table 2). The greatest between-generation variability was demonstrated by Na-gri3 followed by Palma, Nagri2, and Nagri,. The least between-generation variability was demonstrated by Raily, followed by Sukli and Sukinda. These results suggest that greater stability in silk yield (between generations) could be obtained from Raily. Hence, this genotype would respond better to between-generation differences because of the lesser influence of environment on its absolute silk yield.

TABLE 2. Mean absolute silk yield and stability for eight genotypes of Bombyx mori reared in different environments.

Absolute silk yield in environment

Volume 51, Number 1

97

Literature Cited

Breese, E. L. 1969. The measurement and significance of genotype environment interactions in grasses. Heredity 24:27-44:.

DlCKERSON, G. E. 1962. Implications of genetic environmental interaction in animal breeding. Animal Pred. 4:47-64.

FALCONER, D. S. 1952. The problem of environment and selection. Am. Nat. 86:293-298.

HANSON, W. D. 1964. Genotype environment interaction concepts for field experiments. Biometrics 20:540-552.

Jolly, M. S., S. K. Sen, T N. Sonwalkar & G. K. Prasad. 1979. Non-mulberry silks. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. 178 pp.

PLAISTED, P. L. & L. C. PETERSON. 1959. A technique for evaluating the ability of selection to yield consistently in different locations or seasons. Am. Potato J. 36:381—385.

A. K. SENGUPTA, Silkworm Breeding and Genetics Section, Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute, Berhampore 742-101, West Bengal, India, AND A. A. SlD-DTQUI, Regional Muga Research Station, Boko, 781-123, Assam, India.

Received for publication 4 January 1993; revised and accepted 13 May 1996.

Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 51(1), 1997, 97-101

DISTRIBUTION OF A NORTHERN FAUNA OF NOCTUIDAE IN THE MOUNTAINS OF OREGON

Additional key words: endemisnr non-target species, biogeography

Although the Oregon butterfly fauna has been well studied (E>ornfeld 1980), comparatively little was known about the Oregon moth fauna until about 1960. During the past 30 years, extensive collecting has been conducted in the state, most notably by Stanley G. Jewett, Jr., C. William Nelson, James H. Baker, Elmer L. Griepentrog, Victor B. McHenry, Kenneth J. Goeden, and Jeffrey C. Miller. From 1992 through 1995, the U. S. Forest Service also conducted extensive blacklight (UV) trap sampling in the Cascade Range and the Blue Mountains to assess the impacts on nontarget Lepidoptera of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki sprays for suppression of outbreaks of western spruce bud-worm (Choristoneura occidentalis Freeman: Tortricidae) (see Grimble et al. 1992 for details of the sampling protocols in these studies).

Various components of this moth fauna show biogeographic connections with the northern Pacific Coast, California, the Great Basin, and the northern Rocky Mountains. In this paper, we report on a northern fauna of Noctuidae that is transcontinental across Canada from Quebec to British Columbia, extending southward through the Appalachians to North Carolina, the Rocky Mountains, and the mountains of Oregon. The fauna has been enumerated by Rockburne and Lafontaine (1976), Prentice (1962) and from a survey of museum records. Only those species typical of northern hardwood-conifer forests, meadows, or wetlands are included in this study; ubiquitous and/or migratory species throughout most of North America, such as Heliothis zea (Boddie) and Peridroma saucia (Hbn.), are excluded from consideration.

This northern noctuid fauna is largely confined to three mountainous regions of Oregon; the northern Coast Range, the Cascade Range, and the Blue Mountains. The northern Coast Range consists of low mountains 300—600 m in elevation, with a few higher peaks to 900 m, extending from Clatsop County to coastal Lane County. The Cascade Range extends from Multnomah and Wasco Counties south to Jackson and Klamath Counties. The lower Cascade foothills of the western slope extend from 150-1500 m, whereas the high Cascades are 1200-2100 m in elevation, with high volcanic peaks over 3000 m. The Blue Mountains extend from Crook County northeast to Wallowa County,

Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 51(2), 1997, 195

CORRECTION TO VOLUME 51

In the General Note by A. K. Sengupta and A. A. Siddiqui, "Effects of gene-environment interaction on silk yield in Antheraea mylitta (Saturniidae)," which appeared in 51(1):95-97, the captions for both Tables 1 and 2 carry the incorrect taxon. The name Bombyx mori appears erroneously instead of Antheraea mylitta.

Date of Issue (Vol. 51, No. 2): 11 July 1997