Attraction of bark beetles,Tomicus piniperda,Hylurgops palliatus, andTrypodendron domesticum and other insects to short-chain alcohols and monoterpenes.

Abstract

Several Scandinavian forest insects,Hylurgops palliatus, Tomicus piniperda, andTrypodendron domesticum (Coleoptera: Scolytidae),Rhizophagus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Rhizophagidae) andPollenia spp. (Diptera: Calliphoridae) were attracted to window traps baited with ethanol and placed on Scots pine trees (Pinus sylvestris) in May-June, 1986. Release of ethanol at increasing relative rates of 0, 0.01, 0.1 and 1.0 (800 mg/day) from the window traps on trees in 1987 causedH. palliatus, T. domesticum, andR. ferrugineus to be increasingly attracted, whileT. piniperda was equally attracted at both 0.1 and 1.0 rates. The attraction ofT. piniperda to ethanol was weak compared to attraction to a monoterpene mix, (±)-α-pinene, (+)-3-carene, terpinolene. The terpene mix plus ethanol was significantly more attractive toH. palliatus than ethanol alone, but terpenes significantly reduced the attraction ofT. domesticum to ethanol. Baiting of pipe traps with a series of short-chain alcohols (methanol to hexanol) each alone showed that ethanol was greatly preferred byH. palliatus, T. domesticum, andR. ferrugineus over alcohols of one more or one less carbon, while longer-chain alcohols were not attractive. However,Glischrochilus hortensis (Col.: Nitidulidae) was attracted only to propanol. A series of 10-fold increasing release rates of ethanol (0.0001-1.0, where 1.0=800 mg/day) with either a "low" or "high" release of the terpene mix had various effects on the sexes during their attraction to pipe traps and subsequent entering of holes. Release of (-)-verbenone at 0.25 mg/day had no significant effect onH. palliatus orR. ferrugineus attraction to ethanol, but the response ofT. domesticum to ethanol was reduced. Several theories on olfactory mechanisms of host selection byT. piniperda are integrated and placed in ecological perspective.