Species composition of leaf-rolling caterpillars on three wild cherry strains

The species composition of leaf-rolling microlepidoptera on three species of wild cherry, Prunus verecunda, P. apetala, and P. grayana, was studied in a copse in Sendai, Japan. The microlepidopteran communities were monitored once a week from April 2004 to July 2004. A total of eight species belonging to the families Tortricidae and Gelechiidae were collected. On P. verecunda, Eudemis profundana, Archips xylosteanus, A. fuscocupreanus, A. viola, Compsolechia anisogramma and Carbatina picrocarpa were collected, and E. profundana was the dominant species (mean no. of larvae/100 shoots=3.80). On P. apetala, Olethreutes moderata, A. xylosteanus and C. anisogramma were collected. However, the density of each leaf roller on P. apetala was quite low (mean no. of larvae/100 shoots=<0.13). On P. grayana, although only Rhopobota naevana was collected, its density (mean no. of larvae/100 shoots=16.80) was highest among the eight microlepidopteran species collected in this study. These results clearly show that the species composition of leaf-rolling microlepidoptera among the three wild cherry species is quite different, although the three cherries are sympatric species.