Canopy-related adult density and sex-related flight activity of Monochamus alternatus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in pine stands

Abstract

Monochamus alternatus Hope is an important vector of the pinewood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Steiner et Buhrer) Nickle, which causes pine wilt disease. To determine canopy-related differences in the activity density of M. alternatus adults in pine stands, sticky screen traps with no lure were suspended under and in the canopy at 3.8 and 10 m above the ground of a Pinus densiflora Siebold et Zuccarini stand during a flight season. The five upper and five lower traps caught 338 and 54 adults, respectively, during a flight season from 9 June to 12 October 2011, indicating that activity density was six times as high in the canopy as under it. Male-biased sex ratio was observed for trap catches during a season: The sex ratio was male-biased in the early half of the flight season and 1:1 in the late half. There was no difference in sex ratio between the inside and outside of the canopy. To determine the sex-related difference in flight activity, the adults were captured by two different measures in two other mixed stands of P. densiflora and P. thunbergii Parlatore. Kicking tree trunks to cause beetles to drop revealed a 1:1 sex ratio of catches, whereas sticky screen traps tended to show a male-biased sex ratio in a 4-year study, suggesting that males were more active fliers than females.