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Effect of natal and colonised host species on female host acceptance and male joining behaviour of the mountain pine beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) using pine and spruce

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2014

Fraser R. McKee*
Affiliation:
Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Institute, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada V2N 4Z9 Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108, United States of America
Dezene P.W. Huber
Affiliation:
Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Institute, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada V2N 4Z9
B. Staffan Lindgren
Affiliation:
Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Institute, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada V2N 4Z9
Robert S. Hodgkinson
Affiliation:
British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada V2L 5G4
Brian H. Aukema
Affiliation:
Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Institute, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada V2N 4Z9 Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108, United States of America Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada V2N 4Z9
*
1Corresponding author: (e-mail: mcke0620@umn.edu).

Abstract

The mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), outbreak in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, currently extends over 18.3 million ha of pine forest. The principal host of the insect is lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta var. latifolia Englemann (Pineaceae) although it is a generalist herbivore on pines. Mountain pine beetles do not typically colonise spruce. However, during the current outbreak, several instances of mountain pine beetle attack on interior hybrid spruce, Picea glauca (Moench) Voss×Picea engelmannii Parry ex. Engelmann (Pinaceae) have been noted in areas where severe lodgepole pine mortality has occurred. Occasionally, beetle reproduction within spruce has been successful. Reproductive behaviours of mountain pine beetles reared from pine and spruce, such as female host acceptance and male joining behaviour, were studied on bolts of pine and spruce in laboratory bioassays. Females more readily accepted spruce host material relative to pine. Females that developed in spruce had higher rates of host acceptance of both pine and spruce host material than females that had developed in pine. We interpret these latter results with caution, however, as inference is partially restricted by sourcing viable insects from one spruce in this study. Implications of these findings to the concepts of host adaptation and population dynamics of this eruptive herbivore are discussed.

Type
Behaviour & Ecology
Copyright
© Entomological Society of Canada 2014 

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Footnotes

Subject editor: Deepa Pureswaran

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