Succession of Ambrosia Beetles Colonizing the Logs of Fallen Alder and Birch Trees

Abstract

Ambrosia beetles bore into the xylem of woody plants, reduce timber quality, and can sometimes cause devastating damage to forest ecosystems. The colonization by different beetle species is dependent on host status, from healthy trees to the early stages of wood decay, although the precise factors influencing their host selection are not well known. Classic studies on plant ecology have determined the niches of different plant species in vegetation succession, based on comparisons of successions in different locations using ordination analyses, although the factors influencing the colonization of each species are largely undetermined. In this study, to characterize the succession of ambrosia beetles after tree felling, two Betulaceae tree species, an alder (Alnus hirsuta), and a white birch (Betula platyphylla var. japonica) were felled as bait logs in central Hokkaido, Japan, in 2016. From 2016 to 2018, the bait logs were dissected late in each flying season, and ambrosia beetles were collected from the logs. During the period of monitoring, the beetle colonization in both tree species was mostly concentrated in the first 2 years. We observed similarities in the beetle faunas colonizing the two plant species, and that individual species appeared in the same sequence in the logs of the two plant species, although the temporal patterns of colonization differed. Consequently, significant differences in beetle community compositions in the two host species were detected in each of the first 2 years of the study, whereas the difference in the overall composition of beetle assemblages (=pooled over 3 years) between the two plant species was smaller than that in either 2016 or 2017. We speculated that the differences in the temporal pattern of colonization could be attributable to differences in the rates at which the wood of the two tree species deteriorated. Treptoplatypus severini and Xylosandrus crassiusculus were considered to be early-successional species that commenced log colonization soon after felling, although T. severini has a wide niche and was collected during all 3 years of the study. Conversely, Xyleborinus attenuatus and Heteroborips seriatus were identified as probable late-successional species that showed a preference for older logs.