Trapping Failure Leads to Discovery of Potent Semiochemical Repellent for the Walnut Twig Beetle.

The walnut twig beetle, Pityophthorus juglandis Blackman, and its associated fungal pathogen that causes thousand cankers disease, currently threaten the viability of walnut trees across much of North America. During a 2011 assessment of seasonal flight patterns of P. juglandis with yellow sticky traps baited with the male-produced aggregation pheromone component, 3-methyl-2-buten-1-ol, dramatically reduced catches were recorded when Tree Tanglefoot adhesive was used to coat the traps. In summer 2011, two trap adhesives were tested for potential repellency against P. juglandis in a field trapping bioassay. SuperQ extracts of volatiles from the most repellent adhesive were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and limonene and α-pinene were identified as predominant components. In field-based, trapping experiments both enantiomers of limonene at a release rate of ~700 mg/d conferred 91-99% reduction in trap catches of P. juglandis to pheromone-baited traps. (+)- and (‒)-α-Pinene reduced trap catch by 40 and 53%, respectively, at the highest release rate tested. While a combination of R-(+)-limonene and (+)-α-pinene resulted in a 97% reduction in the number of P. juglandis caught, the combination did not consistently result in greater flight trap catch reduction than individual limonene enantiomers. The repellent effect of limonene may be valuable in the development of a semiochemical-based tool for management of P. juglandis and thousand cankers disease.

Comparative morphometric and chemical analyses of phenotypes of two invasive ambrosia beetles (Euwallacea spp.) in the United States.

The polyphagous shot hole borer (PSHB), Euwallacea sp., was first detected in 2003 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. Recently, this invasive species has become a major pest of many hardwood trees in urban and wildland forests throughout southern California. PSHB is nearly identical in morphology and life history to the tea shot hole borer (TSHB), Euwallacea fornicatus, an invasive pest of hardwoods in Florida, USA and many other parts of the world. However, molecular studies have suggested that the taxa are different species. We conducted morphometric and chemical analyses of the phenotypes of Euwallacea sp. collected in southern California (Los Angeles County) and E. fornicatus collected in Florida (Miami-Dade County). Our analyses indicated that PSHB has 3 larval instars. The third larval instar was separated from the first 2 instars by head capsule width with 0 probability of misclassification. The body length, head width, and pronotal width of PSHB adult males were significantly less than those of females. Head width and pronotal width of female PSHB were significantly less than those of female TSHB. In contrast, body length, and ratio of body length to pronotal width of female PSHB were significantly greater than those of female TSHB. However, females of these 2 species could not be separated completely by these 4 measurements because of the overlapping ranges. Cuticular hydrocarbons detected in both species were exclusively alkanes (i.e., n-alkanes, monomethylalkanes, dimethylalkanes, and trimethylalkanes). Cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of PSHB males and females were similar, but they both differed from that of TSHB females. Cuticular hydrocarbons of PSHB were predominantly internally branched dimethylalkanes with backbones of 31 and 33 carbons, whereas cuticular hydrocarbons of TSHB females were dominated by internally branched monomethylalkanes and dimethylalkanes with backbones of 28 and 29 carbons. Multiple compounds within these classes appear to be diagnostic for PSHB and TSHB, respectively.