Abstract

Our present knowledge of forest insect population dynamics has come from studies on temperate forest pests. In this paper the biology and seasonal population fluctuations of the principal defoliators of teak in tropical India are examined. Speculative integration of the limited available information on population fluctuations of the major pest, Hyblaea puera into a conceptual framework suggests that the same basic mechanisms of population regulation may operate in temperate as well as tropical climates. The teak defoliator community involving several insects appears to contain all the three basic population types, viz. low-density-stable, cyclic and eruptive populations. The mechanisms by which epidemics of H. puera may profoundly influence the population dynamics of Eutectona machaeralis, the other major defoliator of teak, is described and the importance of interactions among the pests stressed. The teak pest system creates doubts about the validity of the emerging