Effect of Environmental Conditions on Flight Capacity in Mountain Pine Beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae)
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Effect of Environmental Conditions on Flight Capacity in Mountain Pine Beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) Asha Wijerathna
&
Maya Evenden
Received: 12 November 2019 / Revised: 8 October 2020 / Accepted: 27 October 2020 / Published online: 19 November 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) is a major pest of pine (Pinaceae) in western North America. Mountain pine beetle has an obligatory dispersal phase during which beetles fly in search of new hosts to colonize. Climatic factors may influence dispersal in the expanding geographic range of the mountain pine beetle. This study tests mountain pine beetle flight capacity in the laboratory under different abiotic conditions including temperature, light and wind speed. Beetle flight capacity was tested under different temperatures before and during flight and different light regimes in separate computer-linked flight mill bioassays. A wind tunnel experiment tested the effect of wind speed on beetle flight. Pre-flight temperature and temperature during flight did not affect beetle flight capacity (distance or duration). Beetles do, however, use more energy during flight at high temperatures, which could affect host colonization following dispersal by flight of mountain pine beetle in nature. Beetles fly a greater distance and longer duration during a long (18 h) than short (16 h) photophase, suggesting that increased day length with a northern range expansion could affect beetle flight capacity. Although wind speed does not affect flight probability or duration, it affects the number of flights and flight patterns of mountain pine beetles. A. Wijerathna (*) : M. Evenden Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, CW 405 Biological Sciences Building, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada e-mail: [email protected]
Keywords Dendroctonus ponderosae . light . temperature . wind speed . insect dispersal
Introduction Dispersal is a basic element in the population dynamics of eruptive insect species (Bjornstad 2002; Aukema et al. 2006; Sturtevant et al. 2013) because low resource availability at high population densities affects insect flight (Elliott and Evenden 2012; Evenden et al. 2014). Dispersal is energetically costly (Zera 2009) and may reduce energy availability for subsequent reproduction (Hanski et al. 2006; Wijerathna and Evenden 2019). Understanding dispersal is important to predict spread and manage eruptive insect pests. Insect dispersal includes both long- and short-distance movement of individuals from natal habitats (Nathan et al. 2003) to feeding or breeding habitats (Loxdale and Lushai 1999; Bowler and Benton 2005). Dispersal and movement of insects is influenced by many factors that can act at individual to ecosystem levels (Loxdale and Lushai 1999). Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) is the most important pest of pine (Pinaceae) in western North America. It has
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