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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Pests, Pathogens and Invasions
Volume 7 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2024.1490888

Eastern larch beetle (Dendroctonus simplex LeConte) as a potential threat to western (Larix occidentalis Nutt.) and subalpine larches (Larix lyalli Parl.)

Provisionally accepted
Rose Picklo Rose Picklo 1*Erika Eidson Erika Eidson 2Brytten Steed Brytten Steed 3Brian Aukema Brian Aukema 1
  • 1 University of Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Paul, United States
  • 2 Idaho Department of Lands, Coeur d'Alene, ID, United States
  • 3 Forest Health Protection, United States Forest Service, Missoula, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Eastern larch beetle Dendroctonus simplex LeConte has been outbreaking for the past two decades in the Great Lakes region of North America, impacting approximately 400,000 hectares of eastern larch Larix laricina (tamarack) forest in Minnesota, USA, alone. Range expansions of some Dendroctonus species driven by climate change have occurred across North America as rising temperatures increase climatically suitable habitats across latitudes and elevations. The range of eastern larch beetle is currently sympatric to that of its host, eastern larch, but the insect could, in theory, eventually access ranges of other species of Larix native to North America. We compared host suitability of two potential novel hosts, western larch (Larix occidentalis Nutt.) and subalpine larch (Larix lyalli Parl.) against the beetle's native host, eastern larch, using a reproductive success experiment conducted in cut bolts of all three species. We measured fertility, maternal gallery length, and offspring size and lipid content as metrics of reproductive success. We found beetles could reproduce in both novel Larix species, with subalpine larch having high levels of success compared to the beetle's native host, eastern larch. These findings suggest that subalpine larch may be at risk should a range expansion of eastern larch beetle occur.

    Keywords: bark beetle, Novel host, Host screening, range expansion, Larix laricina

    Received: 03 Sep 2024; Accepted: 23 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Picklo, Eidson, Steed and Aukema. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Rose Picklo, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Paul, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.