Different genotypes and species of symbiotic fungi mediate the behavioral response of invasive fabricius (Hymenoptera: Siricidae).

In northeast China, the invasive woodwasp., , attacks var. Litv and often shares habitat with native . Previous research showed that can utilize the volatiles from its symbiotic fungus ( IGS-BD) to locate host trees. Consequently, symbiotic fungi ( IGS-D and ) carried by may influence the behavioral selection of . This study aimed to investigate the impact of fungal odor sources on 's behavior in laboratory and field experiments. Our observations revealed that female woodwasps exhibited greater attraction toward the fungal volatiles of 14-day-old IGS-D in a "Y"-tube olfactometer and wind tunnel. When woodwasps were released into bolts inoculated separately with three strains in the field, females of exhibited a preference for those bolts pre-inoculated with IGS-BD. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis revealed that the volatiles emitted by the two genotypes of were similar yet significantly distinct from those of . Hence, we postulate that the existence of native IGS-D could potentially facilitate the colonization of in scenarios with minimal or no IGS-BD present in the host.