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Pine weevil (Hylobius abietis) feeding pattern on conifer seedlings.

Publication: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference paper in proceedingspeer-review

Abstract

The pine weevil (Hylobius abietis) is one of the most important forest pests in Europe, yet there is very littleknown about its detailed feeding behaviour. We study the temporal feeding pattern of individual pine weevils ofboth sexes for 24 hours with two treatments, intact and girdled seedlings. Properties of a meal, such as feedingduration, size and ingestion rate are of particular interest. The shortest interval considered to separate onefeeding bout from another, the meal criterion, has never been published and it is only available for a few otherinsect species. Video recordings are analysed for feeding behaviour (e.g. duration of feeding activity, intervallength between feeding activities, movements between and within feeding scars). We measured general activitypatterns as there is insufficient knowledge on the daily behavioural patterns. We thereby got an in-depth view ofthe pine weevil feeding activity that would otherwise be difficult to assess.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of Measuring Behavior 2012 8th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research
PublisherNoldus Information Technology
Pages333-337
Number of pages4
ISBN (Print)978-90-74821-87-2
Publication statusPublished - 2012

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