Abstract
As a group, arthropod natural enemies have been shown to substantially reduce within-tree pine bark beetle populations. However, little is known about the impacts of individual species on bark beetle mortality. In a controlled laboratory study, we measured the effects of two predaceous histerid species,
Platysoma parallelum (Say) and
Plegaderus transversus (Say), on
Ips calligraphus (Germar) and
Ips grandicollis (Eichhoff) brood mortality.
Platysoma parallelum was found to have a greater impact on
I. grandicollis mortality than
Ple. transversus when only one histerid and prey species were present. No significant differences in
I. calligraphus mortality were observed for either of the two histerid species. More
I. grandicollis brood was killed per introduced
Pla. parallelum adult than per introduced
Ple. transversus adult likely as a result of the larger size and biomass requirements of
Pla. parallelum. The results of this experiment indicate that histerids, by themselves, have the ability to lower within-tree bark beetle populations and could have potential use in a bark beetle biological control program.
Keywords
Histeridae,
scolytidae,
Platysoma parallelum,
Plegaderus transversus,
Ips,
predation
Citation
shepherd, William P.; Goyer, Richard A. 2005. Impact of
Platysoma parallelum and
Plegaderus transversus (Coleoptera: Histeridae) predation on developing
Ips calligraphus and
Ips grandicollis (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) brood. J. Entomol. Sci. 40(1):80-87.