Lymantria dispar (Linnaeus, 1758)


Lymantria dispar: Male [S] Lymantria dispar: Male [S] Lymantria dispar: Male [S] Lymantria dispar: Mating [S] Lymantria dispar: Mating [S] Lymantria dispar: Mating [S] Lymantria dispar: Female (e.l. eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany, district of Heidenheim/Brenz) [S] Lymantria dispar: Female (e.l. eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany, district of Heidenheim/Brenz) [S] Lymantria dispar: Female [S] Lymantria dispar: Female (Northern Greece, Thessaloniki, late June 2013) [N] Lymantria dispar: Female (Northern Greece, Thessaloniki, east of Mt. Hortiatis, late June 2013) [N] Lymantria dispar: Worn Pair and eggs (Northern Greece, Thessaloniki, late June 2013) [N] Lymantria dispar: Egg batches and females (Northern Greece, Thessaloniki, late June 2013) [N] Lymantria dispar: Egg batches and females (Northern Greece, Thessaloniki, late June 2013) [N] Lymantria dispar: In outbreaks sometimes large numbers of ovipositing females can be observed (Northern Greece, Thessaloniki, late June 2013) [N] Lymantria dispar: Batch of eggs, Thessaloniki, late June 2013) [N] Lymantria dispar: Ovae [S] Lymantria dispar: Eggs (wool artifiacially opened) [S] Lymantria dispar: Young larva (eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany, May 2010) [M] Lymantria dispar: Young larva (eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany, May 2010) [M] Lymantria dispar: Half-grown larva [N] Lymantria dispar: Larva in penultimate instar [M] Lymantria dispar: Larva (Olympus, May 2010) [N] Lymantria dispar: Half-grown larva (Sardinia, May 2012) [N] Lymantria dispar: Larva (Sardinia, May 2013) [N] Lymantria dispar: Larva (Sardinia, May 2013) [S] Lymantria dispar: Larva (Sardinia, May 2013) [N] Lymantria dispar: Larva (e.l. eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [S] Lymantria dispar: Larva (e.l. eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [S] Lymantria dispar: Larva [S] Lymantria dispar: Larva cranial (e.l. eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [S] Lymantria dispar: Larva (caudal, e.l. eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [S] Lymantria dispar: Larva in last instar [M] Lymantria dispar: Cocoon (N-Greece, Thessaloniki, late June 2013) [N] Lymantria dispar: Female Pupa (N-Greece, Thessaloniki, late June 2013) [M] Lymantria dispar: Pupa [S] Lymantria dispar: Pupa [S] Lymantria dispar: A typical larval habitat are warm, open oak woodlands like here in the French Provence (late April 2011) [N] Lymantria dispar: A very special habitat are the low-growing Pistacia shrubs in coastal dunes of western Sardinia, kilometers away from the next woodland. The larvae had been extraordinarily common there and found crawling around and scrunched on the trails. [N]

Host plants:
The larvae consume many deciduous trees like oaks in particular, but also willow (Salix), aspen (Populus), or lime (Tilia), but not ash (Fraxinus). It is rarely also found on conifers (in gradations).

Habitat:
Lymantria dispar inhabits warm forests in the lowlands, particularly oak or coppice forests. The moth is usually missing north of the Alps in cooler mountainous regions such as the Swabian Jura (only local in the east) and the Alps.

I met a very abundant population on Pistacia in coastal dunes of Sardinia (Sinis peninsula) - far away from woodlands!

Life cycle:
The eggs hibernate in clusters covered with the female wool on the bark. The larvae are observed especially between late April and late June, in periods of gradations also in July. The moths appear in July and August (until early September).

Endangerment factors:
Lymantria dispar is not endangered. The moth is prone to outbreaks in warm years, but these collapse after a few years from diseases and parasitoids again and do never justify spraying chemicals such as moulting inhibitors (e.g. Dimilin) in the mostly species-rich habitats. A discussion of this is found in about Weidemann & Köhler (1996, in German).

Remarks:
Lymantria dispar is distributed from North Africa across Europe and Asia to Japan. In Europe, the moth is absent almost only in the higher elevations and in the polar north (goes as far north as Southern Scandinavia).

In Germany there can be observed a spread into previously not populated areas in the last years, probably due to global warming. So I found Lymantria dispar in 2010 for the first time in the district of Heidenheim on the eastern Swabian Alb.



Lymantria monacha