Monitoring of Population of Scolytinae in Olive Culture

Jéssica Maus Da Silva,Emanuel Arnoni Costa,Ervandil Corrêa Costa,Eli Nunes Marques

doi:10.5539/jas.v10n8p457

Abstract

Monitoring of insects is important to analyze the species present in culture of economic interest, to verify the period of highest incidence and quantify the damages caused by the pest insects. Here, we aim to assess the diversity of bark beetles in an olive orchard. The experiment was assessed in fortnightly series throughout a year and conducted with a completely randomized experimental design, consisting of three treatments: T1: homogeneous olive culture; T2: heterogeneous olive culture; T3: border area. An ethanol trap was used for the sampling of bark beetles. The species Hypothenemus eruditus, Xyleborus linearicolis and Hypothenemus seriatus showed greater abundance among the treatments. The decrease of abundance, diversity and dominance of bark beetles occurred in the heterogeneous culture (T2). Homogeneous cultures (T1) are more susceptible to the attack of pest-insects due to the lower ecological balance among associate, predator or parasitoid insects. Border areas (T3) showed an increased diversity of arboreal species, favoring the higher incidence of insects. In spring, there is a greater incidence of bark beetles, what reinforces the need for monitoring during this period. So far, there are no evidences of bark beetles infesting olive trees in the area, or the presence of Phloeotribus scarabaeoides, which is the pest bark beetle of olive cultures.

Highlights

Many habitats become altered with the advance of monocultures, creating an imbalance of fauna and flora
A total of 5111 individuals belonging to 23 species of bark beetles were collected in the three treatments analyzed in an olive culture
Hypothenemus eruditus, Xyleborus linearicolis and Hypothenemus seriatus were the species with the highest occurrence considering the three treatments assessed, with 1931, 1009 and 800 individuals collected, respectively (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Many habitats become altered with the advance of monocultures, creating an imbalance of fauna and flora These factors are usually related to the continuous use of agricultural chemicals and forest defragmentations. Bark beetles are considered secondary pests that develop under natural conditions in trees that are stressed, wounded, with nutritional deficiency, or that suffered influence of fires or lightnings (Wood, 1982). This subfamily has phytophagous species (bark beetles) that feed from the internal part of wood. The genus Xyleborus is one of the bark beetles that cause major damages to wood (Beaver, 1977; Moeck, 1981)

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Conclusion