Bentz, Barbara J.; Powell, James A.; Logan, Jesse A. 1996. Localized spatial and temporal 

 attack dynamics of the mountain pine beetle in lodgepole pine. Res. Pap. INT-RP-494. 

 Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research 

 Station. 8 p. 



Colonization of a host tree by the mountain pine beetle {Dendroctonus ponderosae) 

 involves chemical communication that enables a massive aggregation of beetles on a single 

 resource, thereby ensuring host death and subsequent beetle population survival. Beetle 

 populations have evolved a mechanism for termination of colonization on a lodgepole pine 

 tree at optimal beetle densities, with a concomitant switch of attacks to nearby trees. 

 Observations of the daily spatial and temporal attack process of mountain pine beetles 

 (nonepidemic) attacking lodgepole pine suggest that beetles switch attacks to a new host tree 

 before the original focus tree is fully colonized, and that verbenone, an antiaggregating 

 pheromone, may be acting within a tree rather than between trees. 



Keywords: bark beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae, pheromone, semiochemical 



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