Survival of mature larvae of codling moth (Cydia pomonella) on apple trees and ground

SUMMARY The effects of predation by carabid and staphylinid beetles and birds (blue‐ and great‐tits) on mature larvae of the codling moth Cydia pomonella were investigated in a field experiment. The number of predatory beetles on the ground beneath eight of 16 apple trees was reduced by an insecticide spray, and tits were excluded from the trunks and lower branches of eight trees by means of Terylene netting. Beetles had no significant effect on survival of larvae on trees, but only 8% of larvae survived to adulthood on trees exposed to blue‐ and great‐tits, whereas on trees protected from them 48% survived. Larvae were taken rapidly by the tits from the time larvae first built cocoons in summer and, by the time the majority of larvae had emerged from apples in late summer or autumn, tits had removed most from cocoons beneath flakes of bark glued to trees. Thus tits fed on larvae mainly in summer and autumn. On trees protected from tits, 8% of mature larvae were killed by fungi, of which Verticillium lecanii was most important. It was calculated that, of the larvae maturing in apples, 44% failed to build cocoons on the trees, 47% were taken by tits, then 1% were killed by fungi. Larvae failing to build cocoons on trees may build them on the ground. Of larvae in cocoons planted on or in the ground in 1975, only one (0.3%) persisted through the winter; 98.6% disappeared, and 1.1% were found dead, covered by fungi; in 1976, all larvae disappeared by December. Larvae disappeared even in the absence of predators, and are thought to have moved in response to damp ground conditions.