Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 8:35 AM
0076

Communities of wood-boring insects (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) and their natural enemies in tree plantations of east central Illinois

Peter F. Reagel, reagel@uiuc.edu1, Elizabeth E. Graham1, Michael T. Smith, mtsmith@udel.edu2, Roger W. Fuester, roger.fuester@ars.usda.gov2, and Lawrence M. Hanks, hanks@uiuc.edu3. (1) University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign, Entomology, 420 Morrill Hall, 505 South Goodwin Ave, Urbana, IL, (2) USDA-ARS, Beneficial Insects Introduction Research Laboratory, 501 S. Chapel Street, Newark, DE, (3) University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign, Department of Entomology, 320 Morrill Hall, 505 South Goodwin Ave, Urbana, IL

Many beetle species in the Cerambycidae are serious pests of trees in forests, plantations, and ornamental settings world wide. Controlling the larva can be difficult because they develop within the woody tissues of host trees. Natural enemies, particularly parasitoids, can be important in regulating populations of wood-boring beetles, and so have great potential as biological control agents. To assess the impact of natural enemies on populations of endemic woodboring beetles, we felled trees of three species in plantation settings, characterized the communities of woodborers that colonized them, identified natural enemies that attacked them, and estimated mortality rates. Our findings may have applications in identifying endemic species of natural enemies that could be encouraged to suppress invasive exotic woodborers in the future.


Species 1: Coleoptera Cerambycidae Urographis fasciatus
Species 2: Coleoptera Cerambycidae Monochamus carolinensis