European Spruce Bark Beetle, Ips typographus (L.) Males Are Attracted to Bark Cores of Drought-Stressed Norway Spruce Trees with Impaired Defenses in Petri Dish Choice Experiments

Forests

Giuseppe Morgante¹  Martin Schebeck²  Verena Rentsch²  Sigrid Netherer²  Thomas Kirisits² 

[1] Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment, University of Padua, Agripolis, Viale dell’Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy;Institute of Forest Entomology, Forest Pathology and Forest Protection, Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, BOKU, Vienna Peter-Jordan-Straße 82/I, 1190 Vienna, Austria;

关键词: Picea abies;    European spruce bark beetle;    water stress;    ophiostomatoid fungi;    blue-stain fungi;    Grosmannia penicillata;   

DOI  :  10.3390/f13040537

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The European spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus (L.), is a major pest of Norway spruce. During outbreaks, the beetles can colonize moderately stressed trees via mass attacks mediated by aggregation pheromones, while at endemic population levels, beetles infest trees with impaired defenses. I. typographus introduces ophiostomatoid fungi into the phloem, which can support host colonization. Low-density fungal infections are locally contained by hypersensitive wound reactions; larger necrotic lesions indicate lower tree resistance. Here, we made links between drought stress, susceptibility to fungal infections, and the attractiveness of spruce for host-searching I. typographus males. We sampled bark cores from roofed, non-roofed and untreated control trees of a rainfall exclusion field site. Drought stress was assessed using pre-dawn twig water potentials, and tree defenses were assessed using inoculations with Grosmannia penicillata. Subsequently, we performed Petri dish arena choice tests in the lab, where male beetles could choose between the bark samples of differentially stressed trees. We found that the attractiveness of bark cores increased with drought stress and the extent of hypersensitive wound reactions to fungal infection. Furthermore, beetles stayed longer in those Petri dish sections with the sample of their final choice. The bioassays provide evidence for the primary attraction of male I. typographus to tissues of Norway spruce and preference of beetles for stressed trees.

【 授权许可】

Unknown