Flight directionality of Tribolium castaneum soon after take‐off under glasshouse and field conditions. Issue 2 (17th June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rafter, M.A.; Ridley, A.W.; Daglish, G.J.; Burrill, P.R.; Walter, G.H.
• Is Part Of: Entomologia experimentalis et applicata. Volume 156:Issue 2(2015:Aug.)
• Page Start: 178
• Page End: 186
• Publication Date: 2015-06-17
• Subjects: Entomology -- Periodicals; 595.7
• DOI: 10.1111/eea.12320
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-8703

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="eea12320-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Flight directionality of the rust‐red flour beetle, <italic>Tribolium castaneum</italic> (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), was investigated under glasshouse and field conditions using sticky traps placed around dense experimental infestations of <italic>T. castaneum</italic> derived from field‐collected samples. Although beetles of this species are known to fly quite readily, information on flight of beetles away from grain resources is limited. Under still glasshouse conditions, <italic>T. castaneum</italic> does not demonstrate strong horizontal or vertical trajectories in their initial flight behaviour. Flight was significantly directional in half of the replicates, but trapped beetles were only weakly concentrated around the mean direction of flight. In the field, by contrast, emigration of <italic>T. castaneum</italic> was strongly directional soon after flight initiation. The mean vector lengths were generally >0.5 which indicates that trapped beetles were strongly concentrated around the calculated mean flight direction. A circular‐circular regression of mean flight vs. mean downwind direction suggested that flight direction was generally correlated with downwind direction. The mean height at which <italic>T. castaneum</italic> individuals initially flew was 115.4 ± 7.0 cm, with 58.3% of beetles caught no more than 1 m above the ground. The height at which beetles were trapped did not correlate with wind speed at the time of sampling, but the data do indicate that wind speed significantly affected <italic>T. castaneum</italic> flight initiation, because no beetles (or very few; no more than three) were trapped in the field when the mean wind speed was above 3 m s<sup>−1</sup>. This study thus demonstrates that wind speed and direction are both important aspects of flight behaviour of <italic>T. castaneum</italic>, and therefore of the spatio‐temporal dynamics of this species.</p> </abstract>