We studied the process of host colonization of the Asian Longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis Motschulsky, in Gansu Province of north central China. We first evaluated the relative attraction of adult beetles to five known host tree species in China and observed a significant preference for two species. We then evaluated the relative attraction of adult beetles to these hosts under different levels of host stress and observed a significant increase in attraction as host stress level increased. In both studies we observed a female biased response while the background population sex ratio was 1:1. We found that female beetle abundance was a good predictor of male attraction when initial host tree stress was low, but that male attraction was independent of female abundance when initial stress was high. We found no statistical relationship between the number of damaged twigs and male attraction.
Species 1: Coleoptera Cerambycidae Anoplophora glabripennis (Asian Longhorned beetle)
Keywords: chemical ecology, host colonization
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