Abstract
Every 10 or 15 years, the North Woods experiences one of its most spectacular population cycles, the outbreak of the forest tent caterpillar, or “army worm” as most people call them. But “spectacular” would not be what comes to mind for most people during these outbreaks. The most common comment would be something like “Yuck! The army worms are back! I hate those things!” At this point, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service get irate calls along the lines of “When are you going to spray these disgusting bugs?” You would think that we are Pharaoh and his people enduring a plague of locusts covering the land.
The coevolution of aspens, tent caterpillars, and their predators regulates the productivity of much of the North Woods.
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© 2016 John Pastor
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Pastor, J. (2016). Tent Caterpillars, Aspens, and the Regulation of Food Webs. In: What Should a Clever Moose Eat?. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-678-3_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-678-3_13
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