Oviposition preference of Anoplophora glabripennis emerging from five host tree species under field conditions

Abstract

The Asian longhorned beetle (ALB), Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky) is a polyphagous woodborer of hardwood trees. In order to well understand the oviposition preference of A. glabripennis emerging from different larval host tree species, we selected five common host tree species in the field and evaluated its oviposition preferences. The five host tree species are Acer negundo (AN), Salix matsudana f. lobato-glandulosa (SM), Populus nigra L. var. thevestina (Dode) Bean (PN), P. simonii × P. pyramidalis cv. Opera 8277 (PS) and P. alba var. pyramidalis (PA). Results show that adult beetles emerging from these five tree species almost have the same oviposition phenomenon. All adult beetles, except those emerging from PS, chewed the highest potential sites and laid most eggs on AN trees. Adult beetles emerging from AN, PN, PS and PA did not chew any sites nor laid any eggs on PA trees. These results showed that adult A. glabripennis emerging from the five host tree species did not show any clear oviposition preference for their larval host tree species in the field but they did present the most obvious preference for AN and the lowest preference for PA.