Mate choice errors may contribute to slow spread of an invasive Eurasian longhorn beetle in North America

By

Anderson, Jennifer
Heard, Stephen
Sweeney, Jon
Pureswaran, Deepa

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2022

Original Publication

NeoBiota : advancing research on alien species and biological invasions

Volume

71

Pages

71--89

Subjects

Congener , hybridisation , Invasion biology , mating behaviour

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sophia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.71.72843

 

Abstract

Tetropium fuscum (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) is a Eurasian longhorn beetle and forest pest that first became invasive to Nova Scotia, Canada around 1990. In the time since its introduction, T. fuscum has spread only about 150 km from its point of introduction. In its invasive range, T. fuscum co-exists with its congener Tetropium cinnamopterum. Although they are ecologically similar species, T. fuscum tends to infest healthier trees and has a smaller host range than T. cinnamopterum. If they successfully interbreed, this could lead to hybrid individuals that are more problematic than either parent species. On the other hand, if T. fuscum can make mating errors in the field, but is not producing hybrid offspring, then this waste of mating resources could help explain the slow spread of T. fuscum in North America. We conducted no-choice and choice mating experiments between T. fuscum and T. cinnamopterum males and females and determined that both T. fuscum and T. cinnamopterum males make mate-choice errors with heterospecific females in a laboratory setting. Our results suggest that mating errors may play a role in the slow spread of T. fuscum in North America.