Talk:Horse-chestnut leaf miner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Arthropods, a collaborative effort to improve and expand Wikipedia's coverage of arthropods. If you would like to participate, visit the project page where you can join the project and/or contribute to discussion.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale.
Low	This article has been rated as low-importance on the importance scale.
Article Grading: The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need.

[edit] Biological pest control

I have withdrawn the following text from this article since it based on my own observations, and acknowledge that because this is not corroborated by any scientific study, it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)