Abstract: In September 2014, an experiment of factitious infection by Hyphantria cunea (Drury) (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) was done in 3-year-old woodland of target garden greening tree species, namely Fraxinus chinensis Rosb., Platanus orientalis L., Morus alba L., Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle, Populus tomentosa Carr., Toona sinensis (A. Juss.) Roem in Langfang, Hebei. The larvae of H. cunea were reared on leaves of the target species under laboratory conditions. Leaf consumption and changes of soluble protein content before and after factitious infection by H. cunea were measured. The results indicated that the order of leaf consumption by H. cunea was arranged as M. Alba > Pl. orientalis > A. altissima > F. chinensis > P. tomentosa > T. sinensis. The soluble protein content ascended firstly and then descended in target species M. alba, Pl. orientalis, A. altissima and F. Chinensis with low resistance to H. cunea, but it descended firstly in P. tomentosa with high resistance to H. cunea after 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 days of feeding, respectively; but these protein contents on day 10 were lower than that before feeding by H. cunea and of the control. The results demonstrated that the effect of H. cunea on protein contents of target species varied with the extent of tree species tolerance to the moths. The resistance of trees to H. cunea was insignificantly correlated with protein content.

Key words: plant community, moderately degraded tiankeng, ecological species group., interspecific relationship