TREE UTILIZATION AND DENSITY OF ATTACKING AND EMERGING POPULATIONS OF THE WESTERN PINE BEETLE (COLEOPTERA: SCOLYTIDAE) AND ITS NATURAL ENEMIES, BASS LAKE, CALIFORNIA, 1970–1971,
Authors: DeMars Clarence J. , Dahlsten Donald L. , Sharpnack Nancy X. , Rowney David L. 
Published: November 2009

Tree size and bark surface area infested in trees killed by the western pine beetle (WPB), Dendroctonus brevicomis LeConte, and the density of attacking and emerging WPB were measured on 91 trees spanning five consecutive generations of the insect. The emergence densities of six natural enemies were also estimated.

Trees averaged 50.9 cm in diameter at breast height (DBH) with a mean height to base of infestation (HBI) of 1.1 m. Heights to top of infestation (HTI) averaged 16.0 m, but were significantly lower in trees attacked by the second [70(1)] and third [70(2)] generations, during synthetic pheromone elution, than in the first [69(3)], or fourth [70(3)], and fifth [71(1)] generations, before and after the treatment, respectively. Infested bark area averaged 2005 dm2 per tree for all generations.

WPB attack density declined steadily from 4.36 beetles/dm2 in generation 69(3) to 0.86 beetles/dm2 in 71(1). Sampling errors ranged from 6.67 to 26.27%, higher than the desired 15% in some cases. WPB emergence in field sticky traps (STIK) followed an opposite trend from 1.66 beetles/dm2 in 69(3) to 5.43 beetles/dm2 in 71(1). Sampling errors ranged from 8.39 to 28.26%. WPB emergence in laboratory rearings (REAR) averaged 4.03 beetles/dm2 with no significant differences among the generations. Sampling errors ranged from 8.20 to 28.77%. Because of inconsistent differences between these two methods of measuring WPB emergence, we have reported estimates of both.

Densities of attacking and emerging WPB were found to be uncorrelated with tree diameter, indicating that density was not a function of tree size and that these two variables may be treated as independent random variables when used in product models to estimate area-wide population totals.

Sampling errors for natural enemies were quite large, ranging up to 400%; therefore few conclusions could be drawn. Predators, in descending order of abundance, were Aulonium longum, Medetera aldrichii, Enoclerus lecontei, and Temnochila chlorodia. Parasitoids were less abundant overall than predators, with Roptrocerus xylophagorum more consistently present and at higher average densities than Dinotiscus burkei.

The suppression treatment was applied during the collapse phase of the population cycle and apparently prolonged that phase for two generations. This delay resulted in the death of an additional 120 trees. WPB productivity increased with decreasing density/square decimetre of attacking beetles. Density of attacking beetles appears regulated by exogenous processes acting immediately in an inverse density-dependent manner. The WPB population at Bass Lake would be released from endemic to epidemic status at the equilibrium point reached at a density of attacking adults of loge 1.65 beetles/dm2. Mortality of the developing within-tree life-stages appears regulated by delayed density-dependent processes, but the details of the relationships differ depending upon the assessment method (STIK or REAR) used.