Abstract
Among group-living organisms, some individuals initiate groups by being the first to attack a prey item or the first to colonize a new settlement site. In the group-living mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae), first attackers (known as pioneers) on live trees suffer higher mortality due to tree defenses than do beetles that join aggregations. This study examined factors that affect an individual’s propensity to initiate an aggregation. When placed on an unoccupied tree, the probability of successfully entering the tree was positively correlated with body condition (residual of mass versus length regression). However, beetles in better condition took longer to initiate tunnel construction than those in poorer condition, suggesting that pioneering is a “desperation” strategy used when low energy reserves preclude further dispersal or when potential trees are rare. These contrasting patterns suggest pioneering is a nonlinear behavioral response, such that beetles with the smallest energy reserves and beetles with the greatest energy reserves both avoid pioneering. We further found that pioneering was more likely when the environment favored success, such as in smaller diameter trees (which may have weaker defenses) and earlier in the season (when the probability of recruiting conspecifics is higher). Our results suggest that pioneers incorporate both internal and external variables in their decision to attack an uncolonized tree.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allee WC (1949) Principles of animal ecology. Saunders
Bentz BJ (2006) Mountain pine beetle population sampling: inferences from Lindgren pheromone traps and tree emergence cages. Can J For Res 36:351–360
Berryman AA (1972) Resistance of conifers to invasions by bark beetle-fungus associations. Bioscience 22:598–602
Byers JA (1981) Pheromone biosynthesis in the bark beetle, Ips paraconfusus, during feeding or exposure to vapours of host plant precursors. Insect Biochem 11:563–569
Byers JA (1999) Effects of attraction radius and flight paths on catch of scolytid beetles dispersing outward through rings of pheromone traps. J Chem Ecol 25:985–1005
Elkin CM, Reid ML (2005) Low energy reserves and energy allocation decisions affect reproduction by mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae). Funct Ecol 19:102–109
Giraldeau LA, Beauchamp G (1999) Food exploitation: searching for the optimal joining policy. TREE 14:102–106
Gries G, Bowers WW, Gries R, Noble M, Borden JH (1990a) Pheromone production by the pine engraver Ips pini following flight and starvation. J Insect Physiol 36:819–824
Gries G, Leufvén A, Lafontaine JP, Pierce HDJ, Borden JH, Vanderwel D, Oehlschlager AC (1990b) New metabolites of a-pinene produced by the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae (Coleoptera: Scolytidae). Insect Biochem 20:365–371
Hamilton IM (2000) Recruiters and joiners: using optimal skew theory to predict group size and the division of resources within groups of social foragers. Am Nat 155:684–695
Hynum BG, Berryman AA (1980) Dendroctonus ponderosae (Coleoptera: Scolytidae): pre-aggregation landing and gallery initiation on lodgepole pine. Can Entomol 112:185–191
Knight-Jones EW (1953) Decreased discrimination during settling after a prolonged planktonic life in larvae of Spirorbis borealis (Serpulidae). J Biol Assoc UK 32:337–345
Kolb TE (2006) Attack preference of Ips pini on Pinus ponderosa in Northern Arizona: tree size and bole position. Agric Forest Entomol 8:295–303
Latty TM (2007) Pioneer behaviour in mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae). University of Calgary, Dissertation
Latty TM, Reid ML (2009) First in line or first in time: effects of settlement order and arrival date on reproduction in a group-living beetle Dendroctonus ponderosae. J Anim Ecol 78:549–555
Lima SL, Dill LM (1990) Behavioral decisions under the risk of predation: a review and prospectus. Can J Zool 68:619–640
Mason RR (1969) A simple technique for measuring oleoresin exudation flow in pines. For Sci 15:56–57
Moeck HA, Wood DL, Lindahl KQ Jr (1981) Host selection behavior of bark beetles (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) attacking Pinus ponderosae, with special emphasis on the western pine beetle Dendroctonus brevicomis. J Chem Ecol 7:49–83
Nebeker TE, Schmitz RA, Tisdale RA, Hobson KR (1995) Comparison of oleoresin flow in relation to wound size, growth rates, and disease status of lodgepole pine. Can J Bot 73:370–375
Öst M, Ydenberg R, Kilpi M, Lindström K (2003) Condition and coalition formation by brood-rearing common eider female. Behav Ecol 14:311–317
Prokopy RJ, Roitberg BD (2001) Joining and avoidance behavior in nonsocial insects. Annu Rev Entomol 46:631–665
Pureswaran DS, Borden JH (2003) Test of semiochemical mediated host specificity in four species of tree killing bark beetles (Coleoptera: Scolytidae). Environ Entomol 32:963–969
Pureswaran DS, Sullivan BT, Ayres MP (2006) Fitness consequences of pheromone production and host selection strategies in a tree-killing bark beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae). Oecologia 148:720–728
Quinn G, Keough M (2002) Experimental design and data analysis for biologists. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Raffa KF (2001) Mixed messages across multiple trophic levels: the ecology of bark beetle chemical communication systems. Chemoecology 11:49–65
Raffa KF, Berryman AA (1982) Physiological differences between lodgepole pines resistant and susceptible to the mountain pine beetle and associated microorganisms. Environ Entomol 11:486–492
Raffa KF, Berryman AA (1983) The role of host plant resistance in the colonization behavior and ecology of bark beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae). Ecol Monogr 53:27–49
Raffa KF, Berryman AA (1987) Interacting selective pressures in conifer-bark beetle systems: a basis for reciprocal adaptations. Am Nat 129:234–262
Raffa KF, Phillips TW, Salom SM (1993) Strategies and mechanisms of host colonization by bark beetles. In: Schowalter T, Filip G (eds) Beetle-pathogen interactions in conifer forests. Academic, New York, pp 103–128
Raffa KF, Aukema BH, Bentz BJ, Carroll AL, Hicke JA, Turner MG, Roome WH (2008) Cross-scale drivers of natural disturbances prone to anthropogenic amplification: the dynamics of bark beetle eruptions. Bioscience 58:501–517
Safranyik L, Carroll AL (2006) The biology and epidemiology of the mountain pine beetle in lodgepole pine forests. In: Safranyik L, Wilson B (eds) The mountain pine beetle: a synthesis of biology, management, and impacts on lodgepole pine. Pacific Forestry Centre, Victoria, BC, pp 3–66
Schulte-Hostedde AI, Zinner B, Millar JS, Hickling GJ (2005) Restitution of mass-size residuals: validating body condition indices. Ecology 86:155–163
Seybold SJ, Huber DPW, Lee JC, Graves AD, Bohlmann J (2006) Pine monoterpenes and pine bark beetles: a marriage of convenience for defense and chemical communication. Phytochem Rev 5:143–178
Stamps JA, Krishnan VV, Reid ML (2005) Search costs and habitat selection by dispersers. Ecology 86:510–518
Stander PE (1992) Cooperative hunting in lions: the role of the individual. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 29:445–454
Toonen RJ, Pawlik JR (1994) Foundations of gregariousness. Nature 370:511–512
Wallin KF, Raffa KF (2000) Influences of host chemicals and internal physiology on the multiple steps of postlanding host acceptance behaviour of Ips pini (Coleoptera: Scolytidae). Environ Entomol 29:442–453
Wallin KF, Raffa KF (2002) Prior encounters modulate subsequent choices in host acceptance behavior by the bark beetle Ips pini. Entomol Exp App 103:205–218
Wallin KF, Raffa KF (2004) Feedback between individual host selection behavior and population dynamics in an eruptive herbivore. Ecol Monogr 74:101–116
Ward SA (1987) Optimal habitat selection in time-limited dispersers. Am Nat 129:568–579
Williams WI, Robertson IC (2008) Using automated flight mills to manipulate fat reserves in Douglas-fir beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Environ Entomol 37:850–856
Acknowledgments
We thank Mike Climie, Eric Newton, and Kristen Yaehne for their field assistance and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. This study was supported by funding from the Alberta Conservation Association’s Challenge Grants in Biodiversity, the Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative (Natural Resources Canada), and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by D. Gwynne.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Latty, T.M., Reid, M.L. Who goes first? Condition and danger dependent pioneering in a group-living bark beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 64, 639–646 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-009-0881-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-009-0881-8