Arthropods on Pine Foliage in Urban Landscapes

Urban landscapes are dense heterogenous matrices composed of turf broken up by tree patches or corridors (Forman and Godron, 1986, Landscape ecology. John Wiley, NY). Trees and their associated understory vegetation in the urban landscape provide food and protective habitat for many arthropods and their natural enemies and increase biological and spatial diversity (Andow, 1991, Annu. Rev. Entomol. 36:561-586). Pest management strategies that enhance the abundance of natural predator populations are alternatives to chemical pesticides. The goal of this research was to obtain essential baseline information on pine trees in turf landscapes by identifying common families or classes of arthropod predators and phytophagous prey, determining their relative abundance, and describing their seasonal occurrence