Population dynamics of the white pine weevil, Pissodes strobi, infesting jack pine, Pinus banksiana, in Ontario, Canada

Abstract

1. Eight generations of white pine weevil, Pissodes strobi (Peck) , infesting the terminal shoots of young jack pine trees, were sampled as larvae, pupae, and adults between 1988 and 1995.2. The density of adult weevils increased rapidly for the first 3 years of the study, then declined in the next 4 years. Between‐generation rates of change in density of weevils were related to mean number of weevils produced per terminal shoot of the host tree. Net increases in population density followed years in which a relatively high number of weevils emerged per terminal shoot and vice versa.3. The mean number of weevils emerging per terminal shoot was determined by survival of weevils between the end of the larval stage and the successful emergence of adult weevils.4. There was no clear relationship between survival of the post‐feeding stages of the weevil and rates of parasitism or bird predation on these same stages. There was, however, a strong negative relationship between survival of weevils within the terminal shoot and the abundance of the facultative dipteran predator Lonchaea corticis Taylor.5. The relationship among generational rates of change in populations, survival, and predation was evident irrespective of the age of the trees infested, suggesting that population dynamics of the weevil may be influenced as much by local predation pressure as by physical and biotic changes associated with growth of the young host trees.