Assessment of beetle diversity, community composition and potential threats to forestry using kairomone-baited traps

Abstract

Traps designed to capture insects during normal movement/dispersal, or via attraction to non-specific (plant) volatile lures, yield by-catch that carries valuable information about patterns of community diversity and composition. In order to identify potential native/introduced pests and detect predictors of colonization of non-native pines, we examined beetle assemblages captured in intercept panel traps baited with kairomone lures used during a national monitoring of the woodwasp, Sirex noctilio, in Southern Africa. We identified 50 families and 436 morphospecies of beetles from nine sites sampled in both 2008 and 2009 and six areas in 2007 (trap catch pooled by region) across a latitudinal and elevational gradient. The most diverse groups were mainly those strongly associated with trees, known to include damaging pests. While native species dominated the samples in terms of richness, the dominant species was the introduced bark beetle Orthotomicus erosus (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) (22 ± 34 individuals/site). Four Scolytinae species without previous records in South Africa, namely Coccotrypes niger, Hypocryphalus robustus (formerly Hypocryphalus mangiferae), Hypothenemus birmanus and Xyleborus perforans, were captured in low abundances. Communities showed temporal stability within sites and strong biogeographic patterns across the landscape. The strongest single predictors of community composition were potential evaporation, latitude and maximum relative humidity, while the strongest multifactor model contained elevation, potential evaporation and maximum relative humidity. Temperature, land use variables and distance to natural areas did not significantly correlate with community composition. Non-phytophagous beetles were also captured and were highly diverse (32 families) perhaps representing important beneficial insects.

Using RPL Model to Probe Trade-Offs among Negative Externalities of Controlling Invasive Species

“…In addition, establishing areas for monitoring requires eliminating the possibility of visitor interference, thus reducing the available visiting area. The chemicals used by traps may also disturb park ecology [33], thus affecting the quality of recreational activities.…”

Challenges to planted forest health in developing economies

“…Lure-based traps, using pine-volatile lures, have already been used extensively to monitor the spread of S. noctilio (Hurley et al 2012a;Hurley et al 2015;Sarvary et al 2015). And recent studies have used the "by-catch" from these traps to identify other potential pest species (Olivier-Espejel et al 2016). These traps have been used for quantitative monitoring, but ongoing research is considering the possibility of also using traps to manage insect pest populations.…”

The Structure and Phenology of Non-Native Scolytine Beetle Communities in Coffee Plantations on Kauaʻi

“…Specific knowledge of these interactions is invaluable to understanding species geographical distributions and fluctuations of abundances for the purposes of ecological modeling, developing conservation strategies for threatened species, and directing management of pest species [1,2,3,4]. Many ambrosia and bark beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) are important global pests of natural ecosystems, forestry, and agriculture, requiring tremendous financial and human resources to combat them [5,6,7,8,9]. Prominent examples include the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, which has devastated millions of hectares of ecologically and commercially important pines in the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountains [10]; the black twig borer, Xylosandrus compactus (Eichhoff), which is a pest of hundreds of crops, ornamental plants, and forest trees [11]; and the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari), which is the most impactful pantropical pest of coffee production [12].…”