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Abstract
Lepidoptera is a relatively young order and one of the largest and most diverse in the Insecta. The first paleontological vestiges of moths were found among lower Jurassic deposits, but the most intensive lepidopterous evolution (mainly in suborder Ditrysia = Papilionina) took place in the mid-Cretaceous Period, coterminous with the expansion of angiosperm plants. The flowering plants were a highly determinant factor in the development of the environment, their influence on moth speciation extending beyond provision of food for caterpillars and adults. The greatly increasing heterogeneity of plants in space and time became a base for many potential ecological niches, many of which were afterwards occupied by lepidopterous species. Paleontological data indicate that the mining mode of life was already formed in the first stages of lepidopterous evolution (Kozlov 1988). In recent time, mining caterpillars can be found in nearly all large groups of Lepidoptera. The mining moths are the most specialized ecological group, characterized by important morphological and physiological adaptations at larval stages. They interact very closely with their host plants. Applicability of the term "parasitism" to the mining moths is now under discussion: some authors consider all insects feeding on living plants to be parasites; others question the value of so broad a use of the term. Dogel (1962) wrote, "The parasites are organisms which use other living beings as environment and source of food and make their hosts responsible (partly or completely) for regulation of their interactions with external space." In line with this definition, we consider mining insects true parasites on their host plants.
Parent Publication
Citation
Kozlov, Michail V.; Koricheva, Yulia G. 1991. The within-tree distribution of caterpillar mines. In: Baranchikov, Yuri N.; Mattson, William J.; Hain, Fred P.; Payne, Thomas L., eds. Forest Insect Guilds: Patterns of Interaction with Host Trees; 1989 August 13-17; Abakan, Siberia, U.S.S.R. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-153. Radnor, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station: 240-255.
