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The light at the end of the tunnel: photosensitivity in larvae of the mountain pine beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2018

Debra L. Wertman*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Victoria,Cunningham Building, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, British Columbia, V8P 5C2, Canada Pacific Forestry Centre, Natural Resources Canada – Canadian Forest Service, 506 W Burnside Road, Victoria, British Columbia, V8Z 1M5, Canada
Katherine P. Bleiker
Affiliation:
Pacific Forestry Centre, Natural Resources Canada – Canadian Forest Service, 506 W Burnside Road, Victoria, British Columbia, V8Z 1M5, Canada
Steve J. Perlman
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Victoria,Cunningham Building, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, British Columbia, V8P 5C2, Canada
*
2Corresponding author (e-mail: dwertman@uvic.ca)

Abstract

Investigations of light sensitivity and its physiological effects on insects developing within subcortical tree tissues are limited, presumably due to the assumption that cryptic microhabitats are completely devoid of light. In this study, we documented light-mediated behaviour and opsin gene expression in larvae of the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), an extremely important forest insect that is well adapted for development beneath the bark of pine (Pinus Linnaeus; Pinaceae) trees and is eyeless in the larval stage. Larvae were negatively phototactic, as they selected dark over light microhabitats in phototaxis assays. We recovered long-wavelength opsin transcripts from all life stages, including eggs and larvae, suggesting that D. ponderosae is photosensitive throughout its entire life cycle. Our results imply that photosensitivity contributes to immature D. ponderosae survival and that extraocular photoreception could be common among bark beetle larvae.

Type
Behaviour & Ecology
Copyright
© 2018 Entomological Society of Canada. Parts of this are a work of Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada 

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Footnotes

1

Present address: Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, Forest Sciences Centre, University of British Columbia, 3041–2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada

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