Abstract
Felled loblolly and slash pine trees were infested with Ips calligraphus (Germar) (80.2% of Ips population), I. avulsus (Eichhoff) (11.2%), and I. grandicollis (Eichhoff) (8.2%). A complex of beneficials associated with the Ips spp. broods consisted of 27 known or suspected insect predator species and 10 species of parasites. Predators comprised 98.8% and parasites 1.2% of the total beneficial insects collected. The predators Lonchaea sp. (Diptera: Lonchaeidae), Aulordum spp. (Coleoptera: Colydiidae), staphylinids and histerids (Coleoptera), and Scoloposcelis mississippensis (Drake and Harris) (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) comprised 44.7, 6.8, 6.0, and 4.3%, respectively, of the total beneficial insect complex. The most abundant parasite was Roptrocerus eccoptogastri Ratzeburg, which accounted for 37.3% of all parasites but only 0.5% of the total beneficial insect complex. Abundance of both the beneficial insect complex and their Ips hosts was highest in trees felled in May and lowest in trees felled during August, suggesting a possible densitydependent relationship between the beneficials and the Ips spp. populations. Plegaderus sp. was the only species to show consistent preference for host tree, being more abundant in slash pine than on loblolly.
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