Abstract
Prior research from trapping experiments using synthetic pheromone components suggested the existence of local and geographical variation in the pheromone system of the spruce beetle, Dendroctonus rufipennis (Kirby). To test hypotheses concerning variation in the spruce beetle’s aggregation pheromone blend, we extracted volatiles from the hindguts of individual spruce beetles sampled from sites in eastern Canada (Nova Scotia and Newfoundland) and western Canada (British Columbia and Alberta) and quantified the amounts of four known aggregation pheromone components within each sample. Chiral analyses were performed on a subset of samples. Frontalin (1,5-dimethyl-6,8-dioxabicyclo[3.2.1]octane) was more dominant in western Canada, whereas MCOL (1-methyl-2-cyclohexen-1-ol) and seudenol (3-methyl-2-cyclohexen-1-ol) were more dominant in the east. Verbenene (4-methylene-6,6-dimethylbicyclo[3.1.1]hept-2-ene) was prevalent only in one of our six sites (Rocky Mountain House, AB). Female beetles in Rocky Mountain House (AB) also produced a higher proportion of (+)-frontalin than females from the other sites, and a comparison to previously published data suggests additional geographic variation that was not captured among our sites. When paired with a male in a gallery, female spruce beetles produced pheromone blends with more frontalin and less MCOL compared to solitary female beetles. Our results show that variation in the spruce beetle’s pheromone blend exists at both large and small spatial scales, possibly a consequence of local selective pressures and assortative mating.
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Acknowledgements
Funding was provided by the University of Northern British Columbia, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs program, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund, SERG International, the Canadian Forest Service, and the Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forestry and Alberta Agriculture and Forestry through SERG International and Forest Protection Limited. In-kind support was provided by the Canadian Forest Service, Acadia University, the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Natural Resources, the Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forestry and Alberta Agriculture and Forestry through SERG International and Forest Protection Limited, the Pacific Forestry Centre, and the University of Northern British Columbia.
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Isitt, R.L., Bleiker, K.P., Pureswaran, D.S. et al. Local, Geographical, and Contextual Variation in the Aggregation Pheromone Blend of the Spruce Beetle, Dendroctonus rufipennis (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). J Chem Ecol 46, 497–507 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-020-01185-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-020-01185-3