Movement Behaviour and Resource Tracking

most important forest pest over large areas of Europe. The adults feed on the stem bark of newly planted conifer seedlings, causing severe damage and mortality. The aim of this thesis was to obtain knowledge about behaviours of the pine weevil associated with its feeding, which may be of use in designing measures to protect seedlings. A field experiment showed that the pine weevils use both olfaction and vision to find conifer seedlings. Their response to the combination of odour and visual stimuli were additive. Visual stimuli were at least as important as odour in finding an undamaged conifer seedling. Soil scarification, which usually exposes mineral soil, is widely used in Scandinavian forest regeneration. In a field experiment, half as many seedlings on mineral soil were attacked by weevils as on undisturbed humus. However, somewhat more weevils approached seedlings surrounded by mineral soil than by humus. It is concluded that the surrounding soil type strongly influences whether a pine weevil decides to feed on a seedling, and that this decision is taken in close proximity to the seedling. Another field experiment showed that feeding was less common on mounds of sand tha