茶園におけるチャドクガの捕食性天敵ヒラタアトキリゴミムシの確認

抄録

On August, 2006, at a tea field in Saitama Prefecture, some larvae of ground beetle were observed in the colonies of tea tussock moth Euproctis pseudoconspersa caterpillars. The beetle larvae were collected and reared on the caterpillars in the laboratory. After the adults emerged, they were identified as Parena cavipennis. In the field, a significant positive correlation was observed between the density of caterpillar colonies of tea tussock moth and that of P. cavipennis (r=0.7171, p<0.01). In the area of 100m², 20 caterpillar colonies occurred on average, and about 3 individuals of the ground beetle were observed. The coloration of the beetle larvae is yellow and white with black spots on the dorsal abdomen, which resembles the tea tussock moth caterpillar. In addition, it was observed in a tea field that the caterpillars did not flee from the beetle larvae, even if the beetle larvae existed in the caterpillar colonies. Thus, I speculate that the coloration of the beetle larvae is a mimic coloring and camouflage to avoid the escape of the moth larvae.