Causes and effects of individual quality in bark beetles

Olle Anderbrant, Fredrik Schlyter

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A summary of the present knowledge of variation in individual quality within a bark beetle population is given, with emphasis on the spruce bark beetle Ips typogrophus, A major causal factor is density, mediated by competition during larval development. Density negatively influences individual quality measured as weight, fat content and pheromone production. Together with decreasing mean values at higher densities, the skewness of the frequency distributions goes from negative to positive, while variance changes little. High densities, which often occur in the field, thus result in a large fraction of “low quality beetles”. They have lower reproductive capacity and presumably lesser dispersal ability, lower survival, and earlier response to pheromone. This might concentrate the population in the next generation with increased competition as a result. It is suggested that a decrease in beetle “quality” due to increasingly intense intraspecific competition can contribute to the decline of an epidemic population.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)488-493
Number of pages6
JournalEcography
Volume12
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1989 Jan 1

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Ecology (including Biodiversity Conservation)

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