Abstract

Migration is a strategy used by some insects to escape parasitism, although it may serve other functions as well. The teak defoliator, Hyblaea puera, is a good example of this, in which, moths newly emerging from an epidemic area migrate to another area for egg laying, leaving behind the parasitoid population built up during their generation. An interesting theoretical consequence of this is that an epidemic of H. puera may prevent an epidemic of another teak defoliator, Eutectona machaeralis, through the action of the polyphagous parasitoids left behind