Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service-Atlantic Forestry Centre, Fredericton, NB, Canada.
Faculty of Environment, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada.
J Econ Entomol. 2024 Aug 12;117(4):1545-1552. doi: 10.1093/jee/toae125.
Regional variation in pheromone production and response has practical implications for the use of semiochemical lures to monitor and control bark beetle populations. We tested 4 lure formulations including 2 new formulations that reflect the pheromone production profiles of western and eastern populations of spruce beetles, Dendroctonus rufipennis Kirby (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), as well as 2 commercially available formulations (current Rocky Mountain lure and current Atlantic lure), in 2 locations in New Brunswick, Canada. In 2 separate years, the new eastern lure containing seudenol, MCOL, and spruce terpenes captured 4 times (2021) and 11 times (2022) more spruce beetles than the current Atlantic lure that consisted of frontalin, seudenol, and spruce terpenes. In 2021, we also captured more eastern larch beetles, Dendroctonus simplex LeConte (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), with the new eastern lure, whereas in 2022, we captured the most D. simplex with the current Atlantic lure, suggesting that more research is needed on D. simplex pheromone production and response across its range. The bark beetle predator, Thanasimus dubius (Fabr.; Coleoptera: Cleridae), did not respond well to the new eastern blend that lacks frontalin, suggesting that response to frontalin is important in finding prey and might be conserved in predator populations. The reduced trap catch of T. dubius to the enhanced lure is beneficial because it does not inhibit natural population control by removing predators from the community. Our study reveals an improved trap lure for eastern populations of spruce beetles and highlights gaps and research needs in bark beetle pheromone ecology.
信息素产生和反应的区域性差异对使用半化学引诱剂监测和控制树皮甲虫种群具有实际意义。我们测试了 4 种引诱剂配方，其中包括 2 种新配方，反映了云杉甲虫（鞘翅目：象甲科）西部和东部种群的信息素产生谱，以及 2 种商业上可利用的配方（当前的落基山引诱剂和当前的大西洋引诱剂），在加拿大新不伦瑞克省的 2 个地点。在 2 个不同的年份，新的东部引诱剂含有 seudenol、MCOL 和云杉萜烯，比含有 frontalin、seudenol 和云杉萜烯的当前大西洋引诱剂分别多捕获 4 倍（2021 年）和 11 倍（2022 年）的云杉甲虫。2021 年，我们还使用新的东部引诱剂捕获了更多的东部白松甲虫，Dendroctonus simplex LeConte（鞘翅目：象甲科），而在 2022 年，我们使用当前的大西洋引诱剂捕获了最多的 D. simplex，这表明需要对其分布范围内的 D. simplex 信息素产生和反应进行更多的研究。树皮甲虫捕食者，Thanasimus dubius（Fabr.；鞘翅目：象甲科），对缺乏 frontalin 的新东部混合物反应不佳，这表明对 frontalin 的反应在寻找猎物中很重要，并且可能在捕食者种群中得到保守。新增强型引诱剂对 T. dubius 的诱捕减少是有益的，因为它不会通过将捕食者从群落中去除来抑制自然种群控制。我们的研究揭示了一种针对云杉甲虫东部种群的改良诱捕剂，并强调了树皮甲虫信息素生态学中的差距和研究需求。
