Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T23:34:01.937Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The potential for the use of herbarium specimens to determine the host plants of Ceutorhynchus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2015

David R. Gillespie*
Affiliation:
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Agassiz Research Centre, PO Box 1000, Agassiz, British Columbia, V0M 1A0, Canada
Beth I. Gillespie
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of the Fraser Valley, 33844 King Road, Abbotsford, British Columbia, V2S 7M8, Canada
*
1 Corresponding author (e-mail: Dave.Gillespie@agr.gc.ca).

Abstract

The host plants of native Ceutorhynchus Germar (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) species are poorly known in North America, and knowledge of these is essential for biological control programmes involving this genus of weevils. We hypothesised that weevil larva emergence holes on plant specimens in herbarium collections might reveal potential plant-insect associations, and help locate populations of hosts for non-target testing. We examined 1114 plant specimens in 16 genera and 60 species of Brassicaceae and found 70 specimens among 30 species that showed evidence of feeding injury and exit holes typical of Ceutorhynchus. We used this information to locate populations of two species of Ceutorhynchus. Herbarium collections may be useful tools for developing knowledge of host plant associations for species of Ceutorhynchus.

Type
Techniques
Copyright
© Her Majesty the Queen by Right of Canada 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Subject editor: Patrice Bouchard

References

Anderson, R.S. 2002. Curculionidae Latreille 1802. In American beetles: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. Volume 2. Edited by R.H. Arnett, M.S. Thomas, P.E. Skelly, and J.H. Frank. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, United States of America. Pp. 722815.Google Scholar
Bousquet, Y., Bouchard, P., Davies, A.E., and Sikes, D.S. 2013. Checklist of beetles (Coleoptera) of Canada and Alaska, 2nd edition. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria.Google ScholarPubMed
Chaloner, W.G., Scott, A.C., and Stephenson, J. 1991. Fossil evidence for plant-arthropod interactions in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic. Philosophical Transactions – Royal Society of London, B, 333: 177186.Google Scholar
Colonnelli, E. 2004. Catalogue of the Ceutorhynchinae of the world with a key to genera. Argania Editio, Barcelona, Spain.Google Scholar
Klinkenberg, B. 2013. E-Flora BC: electronic atlas of the flora of British Columbia [online]. Lab for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Available from http://ibis.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/eflora [accessed 11 December 2014].Google Scholar
McLeod, J.H. 1953. Notes on the cabbage seedpod weevil, Ceutorhynchus assimilis (Payk.) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), and its parasites. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of British Columbia, 49: 1118.Google Scholar
Morrow, P.A. and Fox, L.R. 1989. Estimates of pre-settlement insect damage in Australian and North American forests. Ecology, 70: 10551060.Google Scholar
Taper, M.L. and Case, T.J. 1987. Interactions between oak tannins and parasite community structure: unexpected benefits of tannins to cynipid gall-wasps. Oecologia, 71: 254261.Google Scholar