PHEROMONE COMPLEX OF TOMICUS PINIPERDA AND ITSACTIVITY ON NATIVE AND EUROPEAN PREDATORS, THANASIMUS DUBIUS ANDT. FORMICARIUS.

Dariusz Czokajlo, Francis X. Webster and Stephen A. Teale
SUNY-ESF, 1 Forestry Drive, 133 Illick Hall, Syracuse, New York 13210.

The pine shoot beetle, Tomicus piniperda (L.) (Coleoptera: Scolytidae),one of the most destructive insect pests affecting pines in its nativerange of Eurasia, was recently introduced into North America. Surveys of1996 showed that 8 Great Lake states and southern Ontario were infested.There is a potential for significant economic damage by this insect inNorth America. While the strong attraction of this insect to Scots pineodours is widely accepted in the literature, attempts at identifying female-emittedsecondary attractants have not been successful. GC-EAG analysis indicatedthat T. piniperda can perceive about 30 out of 112 chemical compoundsthat were detected by GC-MS in aeration samples collected from beetle infestedand non-infested Scots pine. We were able to identify 19 out of 30 compoundsto which the beetles respond. Three of these compounds are of beetle, orbeetle-induced origin. Field trapping revealed a synergistic effect ofthree compounds in addition to ?-pinene and an inhibitory effect of atleast one compound. T. piniperda-produced compounds elicited strongerantennal responses in two predatory clerids beetles, Thanasimus dubiusand T. formicarius, than Scots pine monoterpenes present in aerationmixture. We hypothesise that the native clerid, T. dubius, can successfullylocate T. piniperda.