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In tests conducted on the Kenai National Moose Range, Alaska, seudenol and α-pinene attracted more spruce beetles (Dendroctonus rufipennis (Kirby)) than did frontalin and α-pinene, the best previously reported synthetic attractant. Addition of methylcyclohexenone (MCH) to sticky traps baited with spruce logs (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss.) infested with 20 female spruce beetles or to traps treated with seudenol and α-pinene reduced the number of spruce beetles caught by 87% and 99%, respectively. MCH appears to have similar repressive effect on the attraction of spruce beetle populations that differ in their geographic locations and hosts. A total of 179 other scolytids, representing 8 genera and 10 species, were caught by traps; greatest numbers were attracted to treatments containing trans-verbenol and uninfested spruce log sections. Scierus pubescens (Swaine) was recorded from Alaska for the first time. No members of Thanasimus species were caught although they have been consistently present in abundance in similar tests elsewhere.

Scolytids were collected from snowfields above timberline in Oregon and Washington. The most productive location was Collier Glacier on Middle Sister Mountain, Ore., where 334 specimens representing 20 species were collected on 4 August 1968. Collections from seven mountains comprised 476 specimens, 12 genera, and 26 species. Hylastes nigrinus (Mann.) made up 63% of the specimens collected. The collections demonstrated that bark beetles had been dispersed vertically and horizontally thousands of feet from the nearest possible source. Phloeosinus chamberlini Blkm. was found 15 miles from the closest known host tree. Behavioral and meteorological factors involved in the dispersal of scolytids to snowfields are known only circumstantially. Certain species are thought to fly skyward initially. Some individuals presumably are carried aloft by warm updrafts and their fallout occurs when the air becomes too cool for flight.

Reciprocal field tests of attraction between populations of Ips pini (Say) from California, Idaho, and New York disclosed geographic variation in pheromone systems. These differences reside both in pheromone production and reception. However, it is unknown whether variation in the pheromone bouquets is qualitative, quantitative, or both.In New York, both sexes responded in higher numbers to their own pheromone than that produced by California or Idaho males. In California, beetles of both sexes discriminated against New York, but in Idaho only females made this distinction. In both California and Idaho, the local population showed a slight preference for the pheromone produced by Idaho males over that produced by California males.The predator Enoclerus lecontei (Wolc.) demonstrated a four-fold preference for attractants produced by males from New York over those produced by beetles from California and Idaho. The parasitoid Tomicobia tibialis Ashmead showed the opposite trend.There is no evidence that geographic variation in the pheromones produced by I. pini is sufficient to enforce breeding isolation between adjacent populations. However, these results dramatize the necessity of considering pheromonal variability in programs applying pheromones for the survey and control of widely distributed pests.