Factors influencing the attractiveness of logs to oviposition by barkbeetles and woodborers.

The problem is concerned with the infestation of coniferous logs by barkbeetles and wood-boring insects during the first season following the felling of the tree. The meristem and wood insects concerned in this study were all members of the order Coleoptera, families Cerambycidae (roundheaded borers), Buprestidae (flatheaded borers), Scolytidae(barkbeetles and ambrosia beetles), and Curculionidae (weevils). The coniferous logs under consideration were cut from tree species of pine, spruce, balsam, and hemlock, all found in Eastern Canada. The present study considers the attractiveness of such logs to oviposition by the barkbeetles and woodborers as influenced by a number of factors enumerated below. Furthermore it investigates the effect of some of these factors upon the subsequent development of these insects after establishment. Of necessity, such a field experiment can only indicate a number of trends but since most of the operating factors cannot be considered independently with any accuracy, the writer believes that an extensive rather than an intensive survey is all that is justified at present. [...