Movement Behavior of Red Flour Beetle: Response to Habitat Cues and Patch Boundaries

Abstract

Movement behavior determines the success or failure of insects in finding important resources such as food, mates, reproductive sites, and shelter. We examined the response of female red flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum Herbst: Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) to habitat cues by quantifying the number of individuals that located a patch (either with or without flour) in response to the distance released from the patch, air movement over the arena, and food-deprivation status. We also investigated how patch characteristics, such as resource amount and presence of cover, influenced time taken to find a flour patch, the frequency of entering or leaving, and residence time within the patch. Although the proportion of beetles successfully locating the patch decreased as a function of release distance, the probability that beetles reached the patch was ultimately unaffected by whether flour was present or not, suggesting that search behavior in red flour beetles may exhibit a simple distance-decay function. Significantly more beetles reached the patch when they had not been food deprived and air was flowing over the arena, which indicates that walking beetles may orient to airflow, exhibiting anemotaxis. Results of the second experiment showed that, on first encounter, fewer beetles entered patches with a greater amount of flour; but once they had entered, they left them less frequently than patches with less resource. Beetles entered covered patches more quickly than uncovered patches irrespective of resource amount, which indicates that shelter is perhaps more important to red flour beetles than resource levels in determining whether to enter patches.

New ‘stimuli-enriched’ laboratory bioassay used to identify improved botanical repellent treatment, Lem-ocimum, to control the stored-grain pest Tribolium castaneum

“…In the study presented here, in the open arena and pitfall arena a greater proportion of beetles was observed to walk continuously around the edge of the arena trays or the pitfall petri dishes, to hide behind the netting bags used to contain the grain samples or gather in the corners of the tray in the open arena assays. In the open arena assay the beetles were observed to hide under the netting bags, consistent with the observation of Romero et al (2010) that beetles have a preference for remaining sheltered, hence putting the bottom half of the netting bags of grain into the sunken pits allowed the beetles to shelter and remain in the pits even if the beetles had not been attracted or repelled by odours emitted from the bag of grain.…”

“…A study by Campbell & Hagstrum (2002) of the behaviour of T. castaneum in a bioassay arena found that they moved across a bioassay arena more frequently if a network of walls was present throughout the arena. We tested the hypothesis that this is due, at least in part, to the strength of their response to thigmotactic cues; i.e that beetles prefer to maintain contact with substrates over as much of their bodies as possible, presumably to protect themselves from desiccation and from detection by predators (Romero et al, 2010).…”

Efficacy of Aerosol Applications of Methoprene and Synergized Pyrethrin Against <I>Tribolium castaneum</I> Adults and Eggs

“…A colony of T. castaneum originally collected in 2004 at a commercial ßour mill in Kansas (Romero et al 2010) was used in the experiments described later. Insect cultures were initiated by adding 100 adults to 280 g of unbleached wheat ßour with 5% (by weight) brewerÕs yeast (MP Biomedicals LLC, Solon, OH) in a 720-ml glass canning jar (Jarden Home Brands, Daleville, IN).…”

“…Differences between the current study and the previous one could result from susceptibility differences between the two colony strains. This study uses insects that were collected from a commercial mill in 2008 (Romero et al 2010), but the previous study (Arthur 2008) used adult beetles from a laboratory colony that had been maintained since before 1958. These two colonies could have different susceptibilities owing to time of collection, differences in insecticide exposure, and length of time under laboratory selection pressures and conditions.…”

Adult Movement and Host-Orientation Behaviour of Warren Root Collar Weevil, Hylobius warreni Wood (Coleoptera: Curculionidae).

“…Dispersal not only has direct impacts at the individual, population and species levels, but also provides insight into how each level affects the others ( -Fernandex et al 2004). In order to best predict a population-or species-level response to disturbance, basic movement patterns of individuals within that population must be understood (Romero et al 2010). …”