Talk:Pine processionary

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Luxembourg96. Peer reviewers: Luxembourg96.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 06:39, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Recent additions

As part of an assignment, I paraphrased many paragraphs which were copied directly from their sources. I also rearranged the life cycle of the moth and made them subsections under life cycle because it made more chronological sense. Finally, I added information on the effects of the specie's foraging habits and information on the tree's affected.--Luxembourg96 (talk) 01:30, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

A substantial amount of text has recently been added to the article, with no inline citations. This is not necessarily helped by the addition of a mass of references at the end, some to obviously unreliable sources such as blogs, without any indication of which reference goes with which added claim. In addition the structure is of mixed quality and the English needs attention.

I'd consider reverting all the additions, but perhaps if the references were placed inline it would be easier to evaluate what if anything is worth keeping. Chiswick Chap (talk) 12:04, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

OK, in the absence of any feedback, I'm moving the main section just added here as it is WP:UNDUE, needing to be cut down sharply to perhaps one paragraph, with rewriting to ensure clarity and comprehensibility.

Life Cicle

In order to frame the main stages of the biological cycle of the processionary with the possibility of action in order to control their populations are described in succinctly, the main stages of development of these insects.

These insects are easily identifiable, and can be observed:

- Postures in branches of pine or cedar, from late June to September; - Clusters of red needles, connected by silken strands, the branches exposed to the sun, in July / August and October / November, being visible the caterpillars of the first and second stages; - The presence of big nests, shaped pockets, made ​​of silky white hairs at the apex of the branches exposed to the sun, from the autumn; - Caterpillars aggregate in the trunk exposed to sunlight. The life cycle of processionary is variable depending on the location of the attacks.

However, in general it can be said that the butterflies to emerge at the dawn, in the months of June to September. In earlier outbursts are more abundant males. The females can fly several kilometers to select a host and then carry out their postures. As they drive to the silhouettes of the pines, the postures are made on surrounding trees or trees who are isolated.

The nests consists of several parallel rows of white eggs that are strongly joined together. The female lays eggs generally on the same needles sheath, covering them with the scales of the end of her abdomen. Although the assembly has a color that contrasts with the green of the needles, the fact is that one can be confused with terminal buds and apical brown or grayish sheath of the pines. They prefer to position on the top of the cup and avoid the northern exposures less sunny and cooler. The longevity of butterflies does not exceeds 3 or 4 days. The birth of larvae starts in summer, and may extend until the autumn, after an incubation period of the eggs of 30 days. The newly hatched larvae are grouped on the position and begin to feed on the needles where the posture. During this phase, which lasts approximately 10 to 15 days, 3 or 4 nests are build provisional with reduced consistency, each corresponding to a feed zone. This stage has one diurnal feeding, eating only the tenderest part of the needles of the pines. During the second stage, and with favorable weather, the colony continues to feed on, increasing the area of the attacked trees. After 15 to 20 days, they change from the second stage to the third one. It is at this age that arise stinging hairs.

From here, they weave cocoons more compact and the feeding time changes to nightfall and night time, ganging up on the nest during the day. The feeding on the needles near the nest, causes their destruction completely. When the twigs near the nest are leafless, they group in colonies and move to other branches that are not yet attacked, where they build a new nest. The larval period is variable, being higher the colder weather. The fourth and fifth stage are developed during the winter. The caterpillars weave a nest of silk whose compactness is greater when more accurate is the weather. They have nightly feeding, and when flocking colonies of various postures deviate from their nests, they are still connected by a silk thread, allowing them to return to the starting point. During the day they remain in the nest which absorbs the sun's heat and allows them to survive at low temperatures. When the temperatures are lower for a long period, they begin to feed on daytime, during peak hours or if there is a sudden drop in temperature, they immediately cease feeding and seek refuge in the nests.

In late winter and during spring they interrupt feeding for 1 to 3 days and start to initiating the well-known "procession", headed by a female down to the ground, where they begin to excavate, also grouped together. They bury themselves to a depth of 5-20 cm, where each caterpillar weaves a cocoon turning into pupae or chrysalis. The pupae remain at rest (diapause) until the beginning of activity of adults in the summer. However, this underground phase of the cycle may extend 1, 2 or 3 years, which means that each year, to the annual population can be added a number of individuals out of a day-break biennial or triennial. This is an aspect that should be taken into account when planning treatment. The butterfly emerges outwardly breaking the ground with the board cornea that possess on the head, from the summer until early autumn.

Artificial control (suggested heading)

This section is only doubtfully usable: WP:NOTHOWTO, but a brief paragraph on control may be relevant.

Microbiological treatments can be applied, for example, with substances which contain Bacillus thuringiensis, however can only be used during egg phase or when the biggest larvae reach 8-10 cm in length. The use of insecticides based on diflubenzuron, is recommended in case of late control. It generally affects insect growth, and can be applied beginning in late October begining of November. Nevertheless, this substance is only effective in the first stages of the caterpillars of development, since it acts on the formation of chitin.

In areas with a significant number of trees with a size greater than 10 meters, the application may be made ??by using air assets (airplanes). For the application in isolated trees, the application may also be made with the aid of aircrafts, for example, using a helicopter.

When infestations are small, but located in areas where is usual to check up insect populations which give total defoliation and is no danger that they will contaminate places frequented by the public or damage the exploitation of pine forests, is often recommended the destruction of the Winter nests during the day, when the larvae are sheltered. These methods are only applicable to infestations of less than 100 nests per hectare and the p,ersonnel of these operations must be provided with protective goggles and with head and neck protection.

The oldest method consists in the application of oil or gas oil in dissolved or in emulsion insecticide, which with the aid of a long enough cable, is introduced into the nest in order to impregnate it. The mechanical removal and destruction of nests of the Pine processionary is relatively easy to accomplish when they are located on branches until 10/15metros soil. The cost of removal of the higher branches of large trees is extremely high and can be replaced by other alternatives such as application of adhesive strapping in later times. This method of capturing larvae in their descending phase, is when they reach the pre-pupae and begin looking for a suitable place for transformation into adult (butterfly) can be performed by manual capture of larvae in the soil and bark of trees attacked, or based on the application of the catch straps with specific odorless adhesive which maintains its adhesive strength over long periods (for example poliisolbutadieno). The application of this later method requires frequent maintenance and will only apply in situations that are not covered by the methods used in the text above or in which when they were not effective.

• http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/9/220/figure/F1?highres=y
• http://www.citab.utad.pt/researcher.php?ID=45
• http://www.esac.pt/cernas/cfn5/docs/T5-33.pdf
• http://www.fmv.utl.pt/spcv/PDF/pdf9_2003/547_151_156.pdf
• http://www.sisef.it/iforest/pdf/?id=ifor0553-003
• http://urano.guarda.pt/gudi/nerga/Resina/processionaria_www.confagri.pdf

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References

Many thanks for taking this on. Note that I have limited availability for a few days now. Chiswick Chap (talk) 09:12, 9 October 2021 (UTC)

Why processions?

This article would gain from an explicit section describing theories as to why they go in procession. Mlewan (talk) 06:26, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Pine processionary/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Jens Lallensack (talk · contribs) 08:54, 9 October 2021 (UTC)

Reviewing now. --Jens Lallensack (talk) 08:54, 9 October 2021 (UTC)

• The species is one of the few insects where the larva develops in winter. – But that must depend on the climate zone? It is certainly not true in the tropics.
  • Fixed.

• as described in 1916 by the French entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre. – doesn't become clear in the lead why this is relevant. Remove, or include as a sentence on its own after discussing the Greeks?
  • Done.

• Dioscorides noted – introduce this person? "Greek physician" or similar? Also, link to the article, not the redirect.
  • Done.

• Dioscorides noted the urtication – link urtication?
  • Linked.

• pityocampes – shouldn't it be "pityocampa", and have the generic name with it? If it is the original Greek name, maybe remove the italics to make this clear?
  • Reformatted; yes, it's the original Greek.

• The French entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre conducted a famous study – "famous" seems unsourced (the study itself can't source this). (edit: seems that just adding source [3] here in addition might solve it).
  • Repeated the ref.

• They burrow underground, pupate, and emerge in summer. – German Wikipedia has a sourced statement saying that they may already appear in mid May.
  • Edited.

• The species flies from May to July. – Shouldn't this be discussed where the life cycle is discussed? Seems out of place where it is. Also, could you check other sources if this is information is correct and up-to-date? According to Inaturalist, the peak seems to be in August instead: [1] (which can't, of course, be used as a source, but it raises suspicion). Maybe also add in which months it peaks.
  • Edited.

• Throughout its life cycle, an individual makes several shelters. – Would be nice to add the function of these shelters. Protection from predators? I think they are active during the night (when they are outside the shelter for feeding). Important to add?
  • Added.

• Any hypotheses on what the processions are fore? Why not searching for pupation sites on their own?
  • The sources describe rather than speculate.

• orthopteran – link? Or simply say "cricket" to be more accessible to lay people?
  • Linked.

• Older methods used insecticides in oil, inserted directly into nests, or mechanical removal of nests. – "Older" means not in use anymore? Maybe "conventional" is the better word?
  • Reworded.

• I don't see any description of the larvae?
  • Added.

• How to distinguish the adults from similar species?
  • Added.

• Distribution seems to be missing completely. Both geographical and altitude.
  • Added both.

• How many eggs per nest?
  • An "enormous number", per ref.

• Are adults attracted to light?
  • It's not mentioned in the sources; they may well be, as many moths are.

• Anything on the subspecies Traumatocampa pityocampa orana?
  • Added in Distribution.

• I found it problematic that the article says the species causes "damage to forests", when I'm not sure if we can speak of damage from an ecological point of view in a healthy forest where the species occurs naturally. Because the forest is the ecosystem as a whole which includes this insect. I would always make clear that "economic damage" is meant.
  • Fixed.

• Hope this helps! --Jens Lallensack (talk) 09:45, 9 October 2021 (UTC)
  • Jens Lallensack - all done to date. Chiswick Chap (talk) 09:29, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
    • Thanks for the fixes. Promoting now! --Jens Lallensack (talk) 18:55, 16 October 2021 (UTC)