Phenology of nutritional differences between new and mature leaves and its effect on caterpillar growth

Abstract

Abstract. 1. We determined the phenology of the shrub Spiraea latifolia Ait. Bork. (Rosaceae), which has indeterminate shoot growth, and the effects of phenological changes in leaf quality on growth rate of the early‐spring feeding buckmoth caterpillars, Hemileuca lucina Hy. Edw. (Saturniidae). 2. Leaves, regardless of whether they were newly expanded or several weeks old, were tougher later in the growth season (mid‐June) than similarly aged leaves collected earlier; correspondingly, water and nitrogen content for leaves of all ages declined through the larval period. By July, newly expanded leaves had no more nitrogen than mature leaves. 3. Relative growth rate of third instar larvae fed new leaves or a mixture of new and mature leaves in early June was higher than that of those fed mature leaves, and efficiency of conversion of digested food to biomass was higher for larvae fed new leaves than for those fed mature leaves or a mixture. 4. In another experiment, larvae were reared on new leaves through the fourth instar and then fed a diet of new, mature or a combination of new and mature leaves, a regimen that was similar to the phenologies of both plants and caterpillars in the field. There was no difference in time to pupation or pupal weights among these treatments.