Atlas of Insects Beneficial to Forest Trees, Volume II

At the present time, the position of modern integrated protection of forests menaced by pests is increasing in importance, and not just because of demands on the quality and quantity of wood being raised. It is steadily becoming more necessary to revise the consequences of the often imprudent, although sometimes seemingly effective, chemical control in forest biocoenosis. Additionally, harmful insects are becoming more resistant to pesticides and so increasing the chance of accidentally jeopardizing plants. In the future concept of integrated forest pest control, we may therefore expect the population density of many harmful species to be regulated to a larger degree by biological control. This book discusses the economic importance of insects beneficial to the protection of forest trees, and provides information on their biology. The text and the pictorial section to this book divide beneficial insects into predators and parasites. The first section is devoted to predators, particularly ants, the most frequent insect species found in forests. Scale bugs, groups of predatory beetles, Neuroptera and Diptera are also mentioned. The second part describes parasitic insects. For this reason, representatives of the order Hymenoptera are mentioned twice: in the first section, among predators (ants) and, in the second part, among the parasites (ichneumons, braconids, chalcid-flies and Aphidiids). Similarly, Diptera are listed in the first section under predatory species (robber flies and lonchaeids) and then at the end of the text under parasitic species (tachinid-flies). An index of scientific names of the illustrated species and a short terminology complete the book. The book is intended as a text book for forestry and agricultural schools, and as a reference text for those concerned with the biological protection of forests, i.e. forest researchers, entomologists and biologists.