Effect of pruning and ground treatments on the populations of Hylobitelus xiaoi Zhang, a new debarking weevil in slash pine plantations

Abstract

Abstract1 Adults of Hylobilus xiaoi Zhang spend the daylight hours in bark crevices of lower stem or shallow cracks in the soil near the base of the host. Adults are both thermophobic and photophobic.2 Pruning the lower whorls of slash pine branches and removing duff and scraping soil around the tree base modified the adult habitat.3 Both adult and larval abundance was inversely related to intensity of treatment, suggesting that the greater exposure to light or heat, or both, at the tree base, the less favourable was the habitat to the insect.4 It was concluded that branch pruning together with duff removal and ground scarification was the best silvicultural approoach to reduce weevil abundance.