Cambronero-Heinrichs Juan Carlos, Ranger Christopher M, Santoiemma Giacomo, Cavaletto Giacomo, Carloni Francesca, Battisti Andrea, Meggio Franco, Rassati Davide
Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, Viale dell'Università, Legnaro (PD), Italy.
USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Horticultural Insects Research Laboratory, Wooster, OH, USA.
J Econ Entomol. 2025 Feb 11;118(1):253-261. doi: 10.1093/jee/toae301.
Ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae and Platypodinae) are fungus-farming woodborers that can cause damage to the trees they colonize. Some of these beetles target stressed plants that emit ethanol, and management strategies have proposed using ethanol-injected trees as trap trees to monitor or divert dispersing adult females away from valuable crops. In this study, we used container-grown trees from 8 species to compare the effect of ethanol injection versus flooding on ambrosia beetle host selection and colonization success. Our aims were to understand whether ethanol injection is a suitable technique for different ambrosia beetle species and whether its effectiveness varies depending on the tree species used. In addition, we quantified the amount of ethanol in tree tissues to understand whether ethanol concentration could reflect observed differences among treatments and tree species. Our findings demonstrated that ethanol-injected trees were significantly more selected by both Xyleborinus saxesenii and Xylosandrus spp. and that significantly more adult beetles of both taxa emerged from ethanol-injected than flood-stressed trees. In addition, we showed that ethanol injection can trigger attacks by X. saxesenii and Xylosandrus spp. on a variety of deciduous tree species, nullifying the effects of the species-specific characteristics observed on flood-stressed trees, which can only partially be attributed to the amount of ethanol within the plant. This supported the idea that practitioners can potentially select any species of deciduous trees in management programs for ambrosia beetles based on ethanol-injected trees.
食菌小蠹（象甲科：小蠹亚科和长小蠹亚科）是培育真菌的蛀木昆虫，会对它们所寄生的树木造成损害。其中一些小蠹以释放乙醇的受胁迫植物为目标，管理策略建议使用注入乙醇的树木作为诱捕树，以监测或转移正在扩散的成年雌虫，使其远离有价值的作物。在本研究中，我们使用了8种容器栽培的树木，比较注入乙醇与水淹对食菌小蠹寄主选择和定殖成功率的影响。我们的目的是了解注入乙醇是否是适用于不同食菌小蠹物种的技术，以及其有效性是否因所用的树种而异。此外，我们对树木组织中的乙醇含量进行了量化，以了解乙醇浓度是否能反映各处理和树种之间观察到的差异。我们的研究结果表明，注入乙醇的树木被黄胸木小蠹和材小蠹属显著更多地选择，且这两个类群从注入乙醇的树木中羽化出的成年小蠹明显多于受水淹胁迫的树木。此外，我们表明注入乙醇会引发黄胸木小蠹和材小蠹属对多种落叶树种的攻击，消除了在受水淹胁迫树木上观察到的物种特异性特征的影响，而这种影响只能部分归因于植物体内的乙醇含量。这支持了从业者在食菌小蠹管理计划中可以根据注入乙醇的树木潜在地选择任何落叶树种的观点。
